Responses+To+Session+4

=Session #4: Bridging The Gap=

In what way(s) might the ideas presented today strengthen your Israel Engagement programming?

Lita Koret

I think that we could use parts of Julian's for our 11th and 12th graders. They meet weekly and choose their own curriculum based on what interests them. I don't believe there is much talk of Israel but there is much talk on m oral dilemmas and I believe what Julian gave us can be added in.

I certainly think we can add some of Amnon's audio/visuals into our 9th grade unit on Israel and also many of the curriculur resources that Nachama presented.

We like to use the shelichot and the IDF in many of our grades and we hope to continue to do this.

Well organized day today--thank you.

Marla Wolf

Moral Dilemmas are a great way to help high school students understand the complexity and relevance of Israel engagement. They also present a great way to keep them engaged in college 101 conversations -- ways to prepare them for Jewish identity building and life after high school. Looking forward to finding more of them to use with students. Can Julian suggest other moral dilemmas and resources for more narratives?

Nachama's websites and other resources are great ways to keep the big picture -- of infusing Israel engagement into the curriculum, without saying that Israel "gets covered in Grade x". Keeping focused on the entire curriculum is really important. I appreciated this lens into the big picture.

Amnon's resources are insightful and also offer terrific resources to keep teens in touch with modern Israel.

Today was a rich day - great content and excellent food for thought. I couldn't believe how quickly the day flew by! Looking forward to more of the same tomorrow!

Jeffrey Schein

Curricular resources: One or several well-constructed maps of what Israel connections can be threaded into the typical subject matters of our schools. The "model" might generate thinking about other connections unique to each school.

IDF: A number of our congregations have focused on middot/character traits. I think particularly for older kids studying the spirit of the IDF pamphlet could fit into that frame.

"Love of Israel"... love can be contagious even if ultimately it is an individual experience. I wonder whether we could compile from the voluminous literature of visits to Israel over the ages some sense of the wonder of experiencing Israel.

Estee Kaplan-Gold


 * curricular resources (Nachama) Great enhancers to bring Israel "alive"
 * audio/visual resources (Amnon) - Teach Israel through music and art is an attractive component and students can relate to this
 * IDF (Oren) - Nice "hands-on" AFTER learning about Israel and the difference between armed forces and defense forces. Another twist on this is the disadvantaged youth in our area and what are we doing for them here compared to the youth in Israel and how they are guided through the army to be active and positive part of society

Cheri Ellowitz

1. We need to engage in the same type of conversation that we participated in today with our faculty. In order to "share our personal narratives" which is such an important part of helping students develop a relationship with Israel, we need to clarify our own personal relationships with Israel. We can begin to do this by talking to each other.

2. Every curricular subject can have some connection to Israel. Students can be learning about and deepening relationship with Israel through many lenses.

3. Cleveland has a lot of ongoing projects with Israel that we don't pay attention to or don't really know about. We can take better advantage of the human resources that those projects include.

Debbie Bram

The day provided a variety of ways in which to engage our congregation of learners in a meaningful relationship with Israel. I have concluded that there is no one 'right' way to engage, but many different ways. What 'hooks' one person, may not 'hook' the next. Therefore as an educator, I need to provide a variety of different entry points for engagement.

I am particularly interested in the possibility of a 'person-to-person' connection with Havat HaShomer that Oren spoke about. I am learning more and more that the personal connections seem to be a meaningful and lasting hook for Israel engagement.

Judy Schiller

I would like to explore more of the resources that were shared by Nachama and Amnon and see how they could support the program work I am involved in. I would like source for these. Personal stories are effective tools for engagement- I don't have a stockpile of materials in this area. I will check Makom to see what is there.

Helen Wolf

The use of the shlichot in the schools to present Israel by personal narratives and show Israel as a modern country (not just falafels and camels) will help our students. We have just extended the offer to two young dynamic women to come in January. This should be told to the group.

The suggestion was made to Oren to reinstitute trips for adults like the former Mega Missions to show Israel to those who have not been there before (parents specifically). He indicated that the Federation is undertaking a new initiative to get more people to Israel.

Renee Dunmead


 * A list of websites provided by Nachama - these
 * will help with introducing Israel as well as research projects done by our 6th graders
 * will bring Israel alive for our younger students by looking at Israel 1st hand (the people, the places, etc,)
 * help our teens to see Israel now - its culture, richness, etc and compare it to the US (both in simple terms and values)
 * The video shown by Oren could create engaging discussions with our teens about comparing our teens to Israeli teens, in terms of rights, obligations and how everyone in Israel (despite what they have done - i.e. drugs, crime - gets a 2nd chance by going into the army)
 * Using art, music and the language provided by Amnon, you can have engaging discussions with teens - introduce them to some commonalities they might have with teens in Israel - introduce kibbutz life by showing the artistic side
 * Using moral dilemmas introduced by Julian would also provide ways to look at Israel and its people from a different perspective that has never been introduced and

All of the these venues will help our students connect to Israel on some level. I am excited to bring these materials/ideas to my faculty and brainstorm ways to enrich our existing Israeli curriculum at a faculty meeting!

Erin Katz

I think that the personal narrative is is great - it allows someone to bring passion and feeling to their story - the way some of the Schlichim do (unfortunately for me and some our past teachers, we have no personal narrative; and it's rather hard to convey feeling for a place that you've have little to no experience with). I feel the moral dilemmas offer more branching off points for discussion for older students. I'm a fan of alternative learning experiences - whether it's drama, art or some other active learning and what Amnon showed I thought was interactive and great for high school students. And since I'm running out of time to comment on the everything else, can I just say that I've walked away with a whole bunch of ideas in how to bring this complex idea to my students and make it reachable for each grade level thanks to the resources provided by Nachama.

We always have the conversation of how to present Israel to Bethaynu students and the ideas presented yesterday have definitely provided more creative outlets than just using some text book that has pictures of people at a beach or the kosher McDonald's.

Gloria Grischkan

I would like to incorporate some of the information on the links Nachama showed us such as Google maps when the 2nd grade students do their flight to Israel. I think our teachers will be excited to explore the information and incorporate the pictures and ideas to expand their exploration of Israel. Our 6th grade curriculum is being revised It deals with modern Israel and the dilemmas Israel faces in everyday life.The dilemma scripts would be most helpful for discussion and also bring current issues for students to grapple with. The 9th grade students usually meet with the IDF soldiers. The previous classes have spoken with officers who work with at risk soldiers. I think we could expand this for a more extensive study with resources from IDF and personal connections with soldiers.