Five Great Ideas to Refresh Your Curriculum This Year

We often hear from educators how challenged you feel in engaging post-b’nai mitzvah students meaningfully in Jewish study.

Rabbis Barry Schwartz and Mark Levine have a suggestion—let them argue! Better yet, teach them to argue, Jewishly, and help them celebrate their right to think for themselves and argue fiercely for their own points of view. 

Judaism’s Great Debates not only presents ten classic arguments from Jewish tradition, it brings the central values of each (such as personal rights vs community responsibility; individual dignity vs effective leadership) into clear focus and showcases  contemporary dilemmas in which these values play out. Recreate classic debates in your class, or have students debate a modern version. Our comprehensive Lesson Plan Manual will help you structure your class time effectively, and a companion pdf, Ten Steps to a Great Debate, is available on our website.

Ellen Rank, teacher at the Solomon Schechter Day School in Jericho, NY, wrote to us about her enthusiasm over Experience Modern Israel/Modern Israel Online, for 5th-7th grade. “I was just playing around with GoogleEarth and Experience Modern Israel. It is amazing. I'm sure the kids will be able to use it intuitively. It is a fabulous tool. Bravo.”

This blended online and print experience immerses your students in key elements of Israeli life by taking them on a multimedia tour. Students can even create their own tours experiencing the sights and the sounds of modern Israel, better understand its challenges as a modern state, and begin to develop a personal relationship with the Jewish homeland.

For older students, you can provide the confidence to discuss the politics of Israel by giving them an in depth look at the historical and political forces that created the Jewish state using Israel Matters (8th grade-adult), a book Senator Joe Lieberman called “a noble service for those who want to connect with and learn about a nation state that has changed the world.” They’ll discover concepts they might find surprising, such as the writ of protection, or dhimma, given in Muslim countries to Christians and Jews during the early centuries of Islam.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles is providing books to local LA synagogues who wish to give Israel Matters as a b’nai mitzvah gift, and we are offering quantity discounts to schools and congregations for class use or gifts.

Many schools have expressed an interest in a comprehensive, active core curriculum that focuses on the affective qualities that help students develop their identity as Jews. Our new series, Building Jewish Identity (for grades 3-5), accomplishes just that—and comes with an optional digital component in the Online Learning Center that encourages your students to continue to engage Jewishly at home.

Volume 1, Our Community, and Volume 2, Sacred Time, are available now, and each features a short format (7-8 chapters) that makes it easy to fit into your school’s schedule. The matching Lesson Plan Manual sets out specific learning objectives to help you assess your students' growing identity as Jews and helps you weave effective experiential components  and reflective exercises into your class time. Two additional volumes, Torah and Our Sacred Texts, and Jewish History will be available next year, also with optional matching digital companions available for use in the Online Learning Center.

“Everybody has the capacity to be dishonest, and almost everybody cheats—just by a little.” This perhaps surprising finding by Dr. Dan Ariely, Professor of Behavior Economics at Duke University, is the subject of his recent book, and of a compelling article recently in the Wall Street Journal (If you missed it, click here to take a look.)

What would your students say about this assertion? What does Judaism have to say about truth, and about temptation? Does Judaism condone lying? And importantly, what tools are available to help you guide students through thoughtful and even provocative discussions on these possibly sensitive topics? Our new series, Living Jewish Values helps students examine their own approaches to real life through sixteen key Jewish values. Personality quizzes let students explore how they really operate in their lives, and concept maps help them understand how Judaism’s underpinnings provide guidelines for real life, every day.

Last year, Kim Beame, Director of Education at Congregation B’nai Israel in Boca Raton ordered 250 copies of Simply Seder, our newest haggadah, to use as a teaching tool in her school. We immediately called to ask “Why?”

“We just loved it,” Kim told us. “It’s easy, attractive, simple, explains everything, and we saw it instantly as a wonderful teaching tool. We think the title is perfect: It’s a simple seder with everything in it that you need.”

Kim explained that they had always taught the content of the haggadah using old haggadot and photocopied sheets. “It was haphazard,” she said. Simply Seder, with its open format, clear readable fonts, and colorful illustrations depicting each step, provided a way for Kim to provide a better learning experience. “It is ideal for every grade in the school.”