Chapter 1: Demography – Where are the Jews today and how did they get there?
One of the most difficult series of questions in the Jewish world today concerns demography. How many Jews actually exist in the world today? What is happening to the Jewish population in different centers of the world? What are the relative shares of Israel and Diaspora in the overall Jewish population of the world? And as important as the numbers themselves are, the really crucial questions lie underneath the surface.
What is the meaning of the numbers? What is the nature of the changing balance of demographic power between the State of Israel and the Diaspora as a whole? What trends do they suggest? What are the implications of today’s numbers for tomorrow’s future? And perhaps the most difficult question of Jews for those who spend their lives counting Jews: Who, exactly do you count? In other words, for the purpose of demographic calculations, who is a Jew?
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Home
This activity explores the notion of “home” and employs artistic technique to make the topic personal and relevant to the students. The activity seeks to discuss the sacrifices and choices one makes when deciding where and why to set up a home, and what the ramifications of this prioritization are for you and those around you. To Full Post
Will the Real Zionist Please Stand Up?
In this session, the students will debate the true meaning of what it means to be a Zionist today. Armed with a short text study, they will advocate for fictional stereotypes of various Zionists. To Full Post
Navigating the Uproar: Campaign to Bring Israelis Home
The past two weeks have seen an eruption of responses to the recent ad campaign commissioned by Israel’s Ministry of Immigrant Absorption. The campaign, targeted at Israeli ex-pats living in the United States, sought to convince the Israelis to return “home”. Though the ads were in Hebrew and clearly intended for Israeli ears in the United States, it seems that the real audience was North American Jewry. Aside from the Jewish Federation’s statement last week (and Netanyahu’s subsequent cancellation of the campaign), countless blog posts and editorials have been popping up each day since this story came to light less than 2 weeks ago. One thing is certain: these videos have struck a nerve among North American Jews. To Full Post
Camp Israel – Day Four – Israel 1989
Israel absorbs nearly one million Jews from the Former Soviet Union:
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Early Ties I: Abraham in and out of the Land – 4
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Shivat Tziyon – 17
The destruction of the First Temple and the exile of the elites to Babylonia were of course a huge shock to our system, theologically, socially, and politically. It seems that the people’s expectation, encouraged by the prophets, was that this punishment would be a harsh but passing blow – that in the near future God would relent and accept our repentance and restore our sovereignty and our connection to Him through the Temple ritual (see, for example, Jeremiah 29). And indeed, so it happened – with the Persian conquest of Babylonia, a new policy was instituted, and the emperor Cyrus allowed the restoration of autonomy in Judah and the rebuilding of the Temple (but not, significantly, the restoration of the monarchy!) just 50 years after the destruction. Therefore it is remarkable that the response was . not a mass return, but rather a trickle, with many of the exiles choosing to stay in their new home. And thus was created the model of Diaspora Jewish life coexisting with a Jewish state. Moreover, the process of rebuilding and reorganizing the community in Israel was difficult and frustrating, and didn’t look much like the promised redemption. The period of Shivat Tziyon therefore offers suggestive parallels to our own modern situation of Israel-Diaspora coexistence. This unit explores the somewhat sketchy historical knowledge we have of the period, focusing on the apparent dilemmas raised by the exiles’ ambivalent response to the possibility of restoration.
Imagine
Imagine you live in a country where most things are new, and if they are not new they are very old.
Imagine you live in a country where you labour to build the institutions you need to live a life – your daughter’s high school, a center for child development, the local pizza store, a new system for emergency medicine, a software company.
Where I was the night Rabin was assassinated
In August of 1995 my husband and three-year old daughter and I arrive in Jerusalem for a year’s sabbatical and study. From the time we landed we were caught up in the tense atmosphere of the city and entire country which was highly intensified for us when my husband’s classmate from the Melton Senior Educator’s program, Joan Davenny z”l was killed when a suicide bomber blew up the bus on which she was riding to attend their first week of class.
Where I was the night Rabin was assassinated
They call them flashbulb memories, moments that come upon us suddenly and with the painful, intensity of a flashing light. The moment is then etched upon our consciousness, whether individual or collective, a picture never to be forgotten.
Most Israelis my age have a flashbulb memory of the moment when they heard that Yitzchak Rabin had been shot. I was at home with my husband, enjoying a Saturday evening Melave Malka dinner with Janet and Lenny (names have been changed). We had lots in common. They were recent immigrants to Israel from Canada, we had come some years before from the States; we were all building religious, Zionist families in this new land. Our politics differed, however. They were firmly in what would be called the “peace camp,” while we attended right wing rallies, turning them into family picnics with our kids.
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