If I am not for myself who will be for me?

Yet, if I am for myself only, what am I?
And if not now, when?   – Avot 1:15

The Justice and Responsibility track focuses on 3 meta-questions:

1. Responsibility to our Circles of Obligation: What Are Our Concentric Circles of Obligation? How are we to prioritize where and to whom we will direct our responsibility?
2. Ethics of Intervening: What are the ethics at play when realizing human responsibility? Are the risks of intervening in injustice worth taking? How can we work to minimize these risks?
3. Living Justice: How can I live a just life? How does my experience on Project TEN relate to my life? What happens when I return home?

In designing the curriculum and its pedagogies, we were guided by Repair the World’s Standards of Practice for Immersive Jewish Service-learning Programs.

 Download the complete Curriculum in PDF:

Facilitators click here              Participants click here

Or download individual sessions here:

Table of Contents

ORIENTATION WEEK

1. Introduction: Why am I here?
2. Personal Mission Statement
3. On Poverty: Jewish sources on poverty, on measuring poverty, and “why does poverty exist?”
4. Why Does Poverty Exist? delving deeper into the question “why does poverty exist?”
5. A Better World – exploring visions of a bettered world
6. The Power of One
7. Why Work to Better the World? Exploring the various motivations that drive people to do good.

CHAPTER 1: Responsibility to our Circles of Obligation (Unit 1)

1. What Are Our Concentric Circles of Obligation?
2. Particular vs. Universal orientations
3. Reflection Session: The Role of Context in our perception of need and our decision to take action
4. Film – Homecoming: on multiple identities and circles of obligation
5. The Poor of Your City: questioning where our foremost obligations lie

CHAPTER 2: Ethics of Intervening

Unit 2: Bystander Responsibility

1. Bystander Responsibility in the Face of Human Need: degrees of responsibility towards others
2. Reflection Session: Out of Egypt

Unit 3: Ethics of Intervening in Injustice

1. Potential outcomes of intervening in the developing world
2. Ethics in Action: Policies for ethical intervention
3. Reflection Session: My Ethics of Intervening

CHAPTER 3: Living Justice

Unit 4: Materialism and Consumption

1. Between Minimalism and Comfort
2. Dilemmas of Materialism and Values
3. Ethical Consumption
4. Reflection Session: Downsizing – The 100 Thing Challenge

Unit 5: Sustainability

1. What is Sustainability?
2. Sustainable Initiatives
3. Reflection Session: Sustainability and me

Unit 6: Tzedek, Tzedakah, & Chessed

1. Tzedek, Tzedakah, Chessed
2. Reflection Session: Into the Future

APPENDIX: Group Process Sessions

1. Reflection Session: Expectations: from ourselves, from one another, and from Project TEN
2. Reflection Session: “Reflections”: taking a look at where you are and how far you’ve come
3. Reflection Session: Reflecting on Myself as a Giver
4. Concluding Reflections: Several activities and reflections to help the group conclude the Project TEN experience in a meaningful way

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