Ages 3-4

For our youngest learners, these materials can be used with children beginning at age three.

Key Points and Learning Activities

 

Ages 5-8

This curriculum contains four main sections for students who are five to eight years old:

1. Developing a Jewish Connection to Israel Through People, Culture, Holidays, Language, and Community
2. Learning About the Land of Israel
3. Encountering the Palestinian People
4. Living Jewish Values and Learning Conflict Resolution

Questions to be addressed throughout the curriculum:

• What parts of learning about Jewish and Israeli history, Jewish culture, and the land, people, and State of Israel feel exciting to the students?
• What is special about the cultures, customs, and histories of both Israeli Jews and Palestinians?
• What parts of learning about the experiences of both peoples make the students feel sad?
• In what ways do the students think that they can make their classroom a better place? Their community? Their world?

Key Points and Learning Activities

Six-Week Module

 

Ages 9-13

This curriculum contains two main sections for students who are nine to thirteen years old:

1. Exploring Israel—the Land, People, and State
2. Understanding Tensions Between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians.

Questions to be addressed throughout the curriculum for nine- to thirteen-year-olds:

• When learning about the history of Israel and current tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, how do students feel about being Jewish? Being part of a Jewish community? Being part of the Jewish people? What makes them feel joyful, proud, inspired, ashamed, angry, or afraid?
• In what ways do the students’ Jewish values or secular values (e.g. democracy, equality, or human rights) inform their perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
• How do Jewish texts help the students wrestle with the land, people, or State of Israel?
• In what ways do the students see themselves playing a role in solving conflicts or fostering dialogue and cooperation in their community? In what ways do they see themselves working towards social justice as regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? How might their Jewish beliefs or identity inform these ideas?

Key Points and Learning Activities

Six-Week Module

 

Ages 14-18

This curriculum contains two main sections for students who are fourteen to eighteen years old:

1. Exploring Israel—the Land, People, and State
2. Understanding Tensions Between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians.

Questions to be addressed throughout the curriculum for fourteen- to eighteen-year-olds:

• When learning about the history of Israel and current tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, how do students feel about being Jewish? Being part of a Jewish community? Being part of the Jewish people? What makes them feel joyful, proud, inspired, ashamed, angry, or afraid?
• In what ways do the students’ Jewish values or secular values (e.g. democracy, equality, or human rights) inform their perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Are there Jewish values that need to be reconsidered or reconstructed? When values or principles are in conflict, which do students prioritize and why?
• In what ways do the students’ actions or the actions of others emerge from their value systems? Where do gaps exist between the values they believe in and their actions?
• How do Jewish texts help the students wrestle with the land, people, or State of Israel?
• Do the students have equally strong connections to the land, people, and State of Israel? How do they perceive and describe these connections (or lack of connections)?
• What might be gained from reading or listening to the stories of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples? Does doing so change whether the students see the conflict in terms of “good guys” and “bad guys”?
• How do the students benefit from being part of or connected to a Jewish community? How does the community benefit from having a diverse range of voices within it? In what ways could a diversity of beliefs weaken the Jewish community? What are the costs and benefits of suppressing debate in the Jewish community?
• In what ways do the students see themselves playing a role in solving conflicts or fostering dialogue and cooperation in their community? In what ways do they see themselves working towards social justice as regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Do they see these commitments as stemming from Judaism or being Jewish?

Key Points and Learning Activities

Six-Week Module