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:
- 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?
- 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?
- 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
- Introduction: Why am I here?
- Personal Mission Statement
- On Poverty: Jewish sources on poverty, on measuring poverty, and “why does poverty exist?”
- Why Does Poverty Exist? delving deeper into the question “why does poverty exist?”
- A Better World – exploring visions of a bettered world
- The Power of One
- 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)
- What Are Our Concentric Circles of Obligation?
- Particular vs. Universal orientations
- Reflection Session: The Role of Context in our perception of need and our decision to take action
- Film – Homecoming: on multiple identities and circles of obligation
- The Poor of Your City: questioning where our foremost obligations lie
CHAPTER 2: Ethics of Intervening
Unit 2: Bystander Responsibility
- Bystander Responsibility in the Face of Human Need: degrees of responsibility towards others
- Reflection Session: Out of Egypt
Unit 3: Ethics of Intervening in Injustice
- Potential outcomes of intervening in the developing world
- Ethics in Action: Policies for ethical intervention
- Reflection Session: My Ethics of Intervening
CHAPTER 3: Living Justice
Unit 4: Materialism and Consumption
- Between Minimalism and Comfort
- Dilemmas of Materialism and Values
- Ethical Consumption
- Reflection Session: Downsizing – The 100 Thing Challenge
Unit 5: Sustainability
Unit 6: Tzedek, Tzedakah, & Chessed
APPENDIX: Group Process Sessions
- Reflection Session: Expectations: from ourselves, from one another, and from Project TEN
- Reflection Session: “Reflections”: taking a look at where you are and how far you’ve come
- Reflection Session: Reflecting on Myself as a Giver
- Concluding Reflections: Several activities and reflections to help the group conclude the Project TEN experience in a meaningful way