Our Link to Israel?

As I decided back in August, my professional development topic this year would be Character Education. However, I choose two more professional development topics. I decided to become more fluent in technology. I am going to be active on a BNTY blog, and a personal blog (http://www.dgtrisharder.blogspot.com/), as well as get aquainted with Twitter and amp up the BNTY facebook page. In addition to this, I applied for a fellowship position with the Center for Israel Education. This is I am an Israel Educator Fellow.

Let me explain a little. The Israel Educator Fellowship requires a year-long commitment. During this year, participants attend four seminars, write at least three lesson plans, attend two Community of Practice (COP) meetings, participate in discussions online, and do a lot of reading and outside research. At least 2 hours each day is spend on readings and research. It's pretty intense. Most of the participants in the fellowship are full-time employees of a temple, or retired and teach one or two nights at a synogogue. I am one of three participants under 30.

Yesterday I attended the second seminar in the series up in Westchester. It was such a pretty drive. During the four-hour lecture Dr. Ken Stein talked to us about what was going on in Palestine before Israel and how there was a Jewish state in existence in 1939. Tal Grinfas-David spoke to us about how we can use primary source documents to teach the growth and development of Israel from Lech L'cha to present day. It was a very inspirational session and I came away full of lesson ideas and curriculum suggestions for Israel Education in the hebrew school.

One thing we examined was why Jews had this draw to live in Palestine, and now Israel. Why do we feel so connected to the land? I grew up not feeling any connection to Israel. After I went, and came home, I began to feel this strong connection. For some reason there are things that I feel can ONLY be done in Israel. I understand this to be slightly silly, for these are things that can absolutely be done in other places......but in my mind, I will not do them unless I am on Israeli soil.

The history of this zionistic connection to Israel is puzzeling. As Jews we were persecuted a lot, and we were forced to leave many places. Some times we were forced in to making the choice to leave. Other times the people in power forced us to leave. If Jews have this connection to the land that is now Israel, one would think that when forced to leave a place, these Jews would go and settle in Israel. However this is not the case. This continues not to be the case. Today, according to a chart that Dr. Stein presented, there are more Jews living in the US than there are in Israel (don't take this as exact fact.....even I do not really trust the data that I saw on these numbers. It is not known whether the poll considered a person a Jew based on self-identy, or based on maternal lineage).

This is kind of confusing to me, and I still do not know really where I stand on the matter. I need to know more (which is why I applied to this fellowship). I believe it is very important for us to learn about the history is Israel. I believe it is very important to learn about world history as well.

One participant brought up the fact that she sees Israel Education a very important topic, but she cannot see where it would fit in to the curriculum without adding time to the day or program. Is Israel Education more important than Hebrew language (which in supplemental schools we rarely get, most are only taught to read and not taught what the words mean), or Torah, or prayer, or Jewish Thought? It is hard to pick what are the most important things to teach about Judaism. Even if one did choose, his or her choices may not be the same as the next persons. Israel does not even agree, which is why they are so pluralistic over there. As the saying goes, if there are three Jews in a room, there are four opinions amongst them.

It is a lot of food for thought on my part. I strive to include some Israel Education in my 8th grade class and the youth group. Recently, BNTYjr did a program on Israeli graffiti. It was just a scratching of the surface, but combined with their Falafel Program, it started the conversation about Israel.

So now I ask all of you, what is your connection to Israel? What do you teach your children, friends, family, or others about Israel? Do you feel connected to Israel? Why or why not? What are the five most important things about being Jewish/the Jewish People?

*Posted by Grace