Students reflect on how it must feel to quickly pack up and leave home with little warning and few possessions and then come to an unfamiliar new community. They read the stories of five refugees from four different countries and gain empathy and an understanding of their needs and struggles....
This lesson will emphasize that beliefs influence our actions. Students will research contemporary examples of individuals acting philanthropically in accordance with a Core Democratic Value.
Through role playing a scenario, students with different perspectives will make decisions about responsibility. ...
Learners will define the term tolerance and examine their reactions to given social situations that call for tolerance.
The most important role models for learners demonstrate how one can live responsibly in our world while achieving success by contemporary measure. The great gift and challenge of Judaism is to bring holiness to the profane- to the worldly. The models offered in this lesson are successful in this...
It would seem that contradictions abound in the Bible! Finding interpretations that allow these contradicting texts to coexist is both a traditional religious concern and a contemporary dynamic enterprise. It is also a pursuit that will determine how one comes to understand the role of Biblical...
This lesson will familiarize the learners with basic laws of charity (tzedakah) in Biblical literature. Through laws and stories, students will begin to understand the level of importance that the Bible places on acts of charity (tzedakah), specifically as it relates to...
This lesson will familiarize learners with a story of Creation from the Jewish mystical tradition. The story, based upon the Sefer Yetzirah, provides the foundation for the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, repair of the world. Learners will begin to formulate a personal concept...
This lesson will introduce learners to a number of texts from classical and modern sources on the topic of how the work of tikun olam is to be performed. From these texts, the learners will derive rules for Jewish living and apply those rules, along with input from family members, to...
This lesson identifies those who partake in tikkun olam activity as being heroes and role models. Students investigate various Jewish "heroes" from the past and reflect on how they can use their ancestors’ behavior as a model.