Israel Education: Selected Resources

There are a lot (i.e., tons) of digital resources out there on Israel and on Israel’s 70th from a myriad of viewpoints, agendas, and political persuasions. We offer a small sample of some that we find thought-provoking and worth exploring. We look forward to hearing your feedback at resourceguides@JewishEdProject.org.

NEW!! Annexation / Sovereignty: Selected Educational Resources

"Annexation of the West Bank" / "Sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria" is one of the most complex topics for Jewish educators to navigate and explore with their learners. It’s become the center of world-wide political attention as Israel approaches decisive moves. Resources presenting a wide range of perspectives and agendas are enormous. We’ve developed a small curated list that we found to be informative, thought-provoking, and worthy to explore.

Israeli elections 2019

1. View Webinar with Lahav Harkov

2. Special Resouces for the election

Make use of the curated resources below to bolster your own knowledge and understanding of the Knesset, political parties, key issues, and players, through interactive activities, videos, podcasts and more to engage your students.

A. Israel Votes 2019: Upstart Israel

https://www.israelvotes2019.com
Israel Votes 2019 shares background and explanation about early elections, the Knesset, the political parties, key players and issues, and special resources such as a glossary of common terms and timeline of Israeli history and the current government.

B. CIE - Center for Israel Education

www.israeled.org/blog/elections
An array of content related to Israel’s democracy, electoral process, history of elections, Arab politics, political parties and more. Geared for your knowledge and your educational settings.
Israel’s Political Parties, Platforms and Leaders - Educational activity
Arab Politics - Analysis and Study

Israeli election process - Educational video from their Israel on Board series

The History of Israeli Elections - Infographic/Timeline

C. Makom

Listen to short interviews with Israelis learn what is on their minds about the elections:

5 min interview with political expert Prof Jonathan Rynhold; helps make sense of the issues

For those familiar with the 4HQ Methodology; How to 4HQ the Elections

Easy to read chart outlining the political positions of the many different political parties that are running in this election. A helpful tool to make sense of the different opinion on many important issues from religious pluralism to international security to Palestinians.
The parallel election invites you to engage in the Israeli election and salient issues in Israel today with a mock vote. The results of the parallel election will be shared after the real April 9th elections.

D. The iCenter

The Israel Democracy Institute’s Guide to the Elections
Curated resources of various pieces from the Israel Democracy Institute; real-time updates through their twitter feed, breakdown of parties and key people, op-eds, stats, and analyses.
Etymology of Modern Hebrew Words Series: Election Edition. Learn some modern Hebrew used during the elections in Israel.

E. Media Lab - Jerusalem U

In their two-part section Guide to the Israel Elections, the Media Lab explores what has happened recently in Israel with some of the political parties (Part I) and takes a look through the eyes of Campaign Ads (Part II). Both sections have helpful hyperlinks to content and background, discussion guides, and classroom tips.

F. Israel Policy Forum

https://israelpolicyforum.org/elections
An on-line elections portal offering analysis, videos, podcasts, aggregated polling data and an online quiz to determine the political party closest to your views.

Things to make you think...

GOOD ISRAEL EDUCATION IS GOOD EDUCATION

November 1, 2018 | Dr. David Bryfman | The Times of Israel

"To truly understand the learner of today is to at least understand the sociology of this younger generation. Whether one is referring to the non-Orthodox Jewish Americans of Generations X, Y, or Z (and many orthodox Jews, as well), the data are clear and cannot be ignored. "

Natalie Portman’s Gift to Jewish Educators

April 26, 2018 | Dr. David Bryfman | JTA - Jeducation World

"As Jewish educators we thrive on moments when popular culture and Jewish practice intersect. These moments provide us with launching pads to start any number of conversations with an inbuilt resonance for our youth – if the topic is good enough for our pop cultural icons to interact with it, then certainly I can engage in that conversation. As difficult as some of these conversations might be, we cannot and should not avoid them."

How does this video make you feel… hopeful? annoyed?
Does it capture the spirit of Israel today or is it simplistic?
What types of questions could you ask your students before or after watching it… What surprised you? Who did you notice in the crowd? Who was missing?
If you could ask all of the participants in the video one question, what would it be?

Lessons from Center for Israel Education (CIE)

CIE’s mission is to educate broadly about modern Israel. Many of the learning materials here were created by CIE staff, while others were submitted by interested educators who attended previous CIE workshops.

Index by subject and grade
The learning materials have been sorted by grade level and general topic area. Some items may appear in more than one subject or age area.
Alphabetical listing of all resources
Includes a short description. Grade/levels do not appear in the list but are available in the actual lessons.

Discussion Guides and Resources from the iCenter

The iCenter has curricula, programs, and resources, including specialized collections for camps and day schools, plus their Aleph-Bet of Israel Education, which is organized into 12 areas of focus. Their work is “rooted in the beliefs of the centrality of the learner, trusting the educational process, and a commitment to both a loving and transparent Israel education.” A new section of their website, ISRAEL AT 70, has a special and diverse collection of their resources that offer "opportunities to explore Israel Education." We've highlighted two, in particular, which you can access from this collection (among others):

ISRAEL AT 70
- Approaching Conflicts: Contexts, Perspectives, and Values in Israel Education
  A Toolkit for helping educators and learners engage sensitive material with more confidence, ask more questions and challenge assumptions for the purpose of a strong and meaningful relationship with Israel.
- Israel Democracy Institute Curriculum (7 modules)
  For the Sake of Justice: Understanding Israel Through its Supreme Court
  Developed in partnership with the Israel Democracy Institute, this curriculum uses supreme court cases in the United States and Israel to explore issues of civic responsibility, social justice, and human dignity.

Resources from Makom

Makom: Israel. In Real Life, is the Education Lab of The Jewish Agency in Jerusalem and works to empower educators, activists, arts, and community leaders across the spectrum to ask tough questions and articulate compelling visions, and provides content and tools to craft honest programming. Makom has extensive collections of resources and lessons including full curricula for teens and adults (that you should really explore).

Social Justice: The Hope – Israeli NGOs
Of late, some of Israel’s NGOs have come under attack. This set of lessons examines 9 different Non-Governmental Organizations (not for profits) in 2012 that serve/d Israeli society and the field of Jewish Service Learning. You can explore them one at a time or divide up students into groups that examine one or two. What problems are they trying to solve? Are these problems present in the United States? What do they tell you about Israel and about Israelis?
Arts Resources
Israeli writing, visual art, and music are full of hints, comments, and colors of modern-day Israel and, and one of the sections of Makom’s website is dedicated to them. Here are two musically oriented and different takes on teaching about Israel and Israelis.
- Makom Music Blogs
  The Makom Music Blogs have an extensive array of music with guided lessons, recordings, videos and translations (in most cases). Old Songs Renewed is a rich and deep dive into five different songs that you should definitely check out. Here, though, we are focusing on the ever-popular and irreverent HaDag Nachash band that you’ll find in several entries of Makom’s Music Blogs (mixed among other important and very different artists). Look for three new song translations (at the top of the page), the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and three songs on corruption (in the middle of the page), and finally Powerpoints of many of their lyrics (at the bottom)
- Artists Focus
  This section focuses on four Israeli artists - Alma Zohar, Shay Charka, Ehud Banai and Kobi Oz. The Kobi Oz section is the most extensive including videos with subtitles and full transcripts in Hebrew and English translations of 11 songs on his “Mizmorei Nevuchim – Psalms for the Perplexed” album. It also includes an interview with links to some of his previous recordings with Teapacks.
  
  As much as we love the Kobi collection as an educational resource to explore Israel culture, we can’t resist showcasing one of the three videos in Ehud Banai’s section, given that it hits so close to home.