Judaica

The Holocaust is in danger of being remembered as just another historical atrocity inflicted on the Jewish people. With fewer living witnesses able to tell their stories, we need a new way to fulfill the responsibility that Holocaust survivors have entrusted to us - to remember, to tell the story, and to act.

Light from the Darkness: A Ritual for Holocaust Remembrance is a powerful new approach. It's a 45-minute, seder-like experience appropriate for a variety of groups, such as synagogue and school programs (ages 11 up), as well as teen, young adult, and intergenerational events.

Its structured, highly interactive format can be used as a stand-alone event or scheduled as part of a series of community or school activities

Not easy does not mean impossible. Here are four strategies for effective Israel education.

Each spring, the eighth graders at Levine Academy in Dallas visit Israel for almost three weeks. For the 40 or so students, it’s a trip they anticipate with excitement for years, beginning in kindergarten when their day school begins weaving Israel throughout the curriculum and programming.

The trip marks the culmination of their day school experience, and educators at Levine Academy want to ensure the students are prepared. This year they will be using the new Israel…It’s Complicated course in eighth grade.

“We’re very excited. We want to prepare our students to be open and to know more, to ask questions. But first students need the information. The new curriculum brings it all – it’s a great source to open the discussion,” says Anna Katzman, the dean of Hebrew language and programs at Levine Academy.

The archaeologists hard at work excavating ancient Jerusalem are focused on the land, or more precisely, what’s underneath it.

As the unearthing of pathways, walls, pottery, official clay seals and more continues under the watchful eyes of thousands of annual tourists, scholars are learning more about the spot where King David once reigned, now known as the City of David.

What these archaeologists are not consumed with, however, are the borders and politics of the modern land they’re digging beneath—East Jerusalem—mostly inhabited today by Palestinians. And yet their work makes life above ground more complicated, writes New York