How do you teach Israel? You could stay “safe” and stay biblical. You could focus only on current events but that doesn’t give context. Or you could do it all. That’s what we tried to do for our year-long focus on Israel for students in Pre-K through Confirmation (10^th grade).

How do you teach Israel? While I am not an expert, through guidance from such resources as the icenter, Limmud, the Lookstein Center, the Union for Reform Judaism, and ARZA, I realized that teaching about Israel must be a balance between academic learning, emotional, spiritual, and hands-on learning for every grade. We had good textbooks but more importantly, as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught, we had good “text people.” Our faculty dove into every aspect of Israel on an age-appropriate level. We had weekly morning gatherings during which we sang HaTikvah. We analyzed the words of HaTikvah and looked at Israeli currency – did you know there are poetic quotes on the paper shekels? – and met Theodore Herzl and made Hanoch Piven art projects, discussed media bias – even with 4-year-olds! – by using Dinosaur Goes to Israel and heard from an Imam, Pastor, Catholic teacher, and leader of the Baha’i community of their religions’ connection to Israel. We had wonderful, informative, and creative visits from our Israeli Shinshin (19-year-old emissary) and online discussions with teens from our sister city Karmiel Misgav. We unpacked terms like apartheid and colonialism and how they are factually untrue in relationship to Israel. We donated to 9 Israeli organizations as our tzedakah collection this year. And yes, we ate a good amount of Bamba (an Israeli snack) and Pesek Z’man (an Israeli chocolate bar).

We also had many Israel-focused opportunities for adults: book discussions by Israeli authors and with Israelis, cooking online with an Israeli chef and plans for a trip to Israel.

How do you teach Israel? By engaging with her from every angle and by making it personal. Do our students now call her our homeland? Some do. Do they call her their second home? Some do. Are they more likely to visit, to perk up when Israel is in the news, to donate to Israeli organizations, to question when something sounds biased? I hope so.