The Holy Challenge of Teaching Israel Education to Youth
April 2023
This month, our Jewish holiday calendar is beautifully full˳ In the early half of the month, we are thinking very much about Passover˳ However, I’d like to focus on the second half of this month, which hosts atrifecta of three significant holidays: Yom HaShoah (Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day), and Yom HaAtsma-ut (Israeli Independence Day)˳
The three holidays have an interesting relationship to each other in that they each connect us to the next holiday˳ Because of the events of the Holocaust, Israel’s population skyrocketed (Yom Hashoah)˳ This led to Israel having a robust pool of citizens to enroll into the military (Yom HaZikaron)˳ As a result,Israel was able to win the War of Independence in 1948 (Yom HaAtsma-ut)˳
As the Director of the United Jewish School, one of my jobs is to shape how to have conversations on Israel˳ With our youngest minds, we talk about the land’s beauty, cultural significance, and sacredhistory˳ With our teenagers, however, we have to have more nuanced conversations˳
Having conversations about Israel with any type of group is a challenge˳ Even speaking about Israel with other Jewish people is tricky˳ You know the adage: Two Jews, three opinions˳
I have to keep in mind that our youth are impressionable˳ We are role models and these might be the first time they’re having a serious conversation about Israel – so we have to do this thoughtfully˳
I like to start the conversation by seeing everyone’s humanity˳ When we speak about the West Bankers and Gazans, I start off by showing pictures and videos of these people just living their lives˳ We talk about their culture and what makes them a unique people˳ Who are these people’s ancestors and from where did they descend? For many of them, their ancestors came from exactly where they are now˳ After all, it’s easy to see these folks as the “other” unless you see them as humans˳ These are people who love going to see a move on a Friday night˳ Some of these people are foodies who love to cook or buy a gourmet meal˳ These are teens start to have awkward crushes on their classmates in middleschool˳ Many are focused on education and can’t wait to go to college˳ They’re just people˳
Then we talk about the Jewish people who live in Israel˳ We talk about how for many hundreds of years, the Jewish people have not had official ownership of a Jewish state and what a miracle it was to finally establish one˳ I talk about the early days of settlement – how kibbutzim were formed, how the language was developed, and how Tel Aviv is a hip and trendy world vacation destination˳ I talk about my personal experience of living in Israel for one year and all the friends I made and the beauty of living in suchsacred land˳
In regards to teaching about the conflict, it would be easy to regurgitate blanket statements I’ve heard all my life that are not the whole story, statements such as “the Israelis were willing to makeconcessions and compromises, but the Arabs rejected them, so they attacked Israel and lost˳” But I don’t feel that it’s fair to make those statements without a Palestinian present˳ After all, we all know someversion of the Robert Evans quote: “There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth˳ And no one is lying˳ Memories shared serve each differently˳”
