January 6, 2009 ~ 10 Tevet 5769
Auerbach CAJE Israel Update:
Helping Our Children Make Sense of the News
Dear Jewish Educators and Youth Leaders,

As the events in Southern Israel and Gaza continue to unfold, we want to help our children learn about the situation.

Here are some resources and ideas to enable them to become informed, connected and supportive.
You may want to devote some class time to one or more of the following activities:
  • Netivot and Sdot Negev, Philadelphia's partnership communities in Israel, are very close to Gaza. Many people from our area have visited there or hosted guests from Netivot and nearby towns.  Write letters of solidarity to Yehiel Zohar, the mayor of Netivot
  • Collect tzedakah for one of these causes:
  • For older students: Conduct a web search to look for differences in media coverage:
See how Israel covers the events - Ha'aretz, The Jerusalem Post, YNetNews

and then compare that to other sites, such as: JTA, Jewish Daily Forward
The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Palestine Press Agency

Ask: What are the headlines? Which pictures are displayed? Which adjectives are used?
Whose interests are being served by the way the news is reported by various media outlets?
A Small Selection of Online Resources:

Our Federation has a detailed web page devoted to The Gaza Campaign, with background information and many links.

Scott Copeland, a senior educator from Makom at the Jewish Agency for Israel in Jerusalem has prepared an update on the second week of the operation

Operation against Hamas terror in Gaza is expanded - From the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Subscribe to MFA Newsletter

"The pain and dilemma of an Israeli father and citizen," by Donniel Hartman of the Shalom Hartman Institute, in Jerusalem.

"We didn't mean to, but we lied to our kids." (From a dispatch by American-Israeli Rabbi Daniel Gordis.)

Check out this article posted at Israel21c.org on humanitarian efforts by Israelis to help Palestinian civilians.

English language articles and recordings of current radio updates are available from the Israel Broadcasting Authority's foreign language web site.

Jeffery Goldberg writes in the Atlantic Monthly about his communication with an anti-Hamas Palestinian leader who supports Israel's air strikes:
A Fatah Friend Writes: I'm Supporting the Israeli Air Force.
Did you know . . .

- that Sderot is no farther from Gaza than the distance from  City Hall to the airport,  Ardmore or Elkins Park!

-  that the name "Operation Cast Lead" is a reference to the fact that the defensive initiative began during Hanukkah? "Cast lead" refers to the molded lead dreidles familiar to everyone in Israel.

- what the missile range of Palestinian rockets fired into Southern Israel is? See this map of the Gaza region and be sure to have maps of Israel available in your classroom.
 
Please feel free to contact me if I can be of any assistance.  May 2009 ultimately usher in a safer and more peaceful time for us all.

Kol Tuv,
Dr. Joshua Yarden
Consultant for Israel and Adolescent Education

Auerbach Central Agency for Jewish Education
jyarden@acaje.org ~ 215.635.8940, ext. 1226
JFGP logo
Show your solidarity with Israel at the

 "WE STAND WITH ISRAEL" RALLY
at Love Park on
Thursday, January 8 at Noon.