Full Curriculum

Unit III: Jewish Peoplehood and Community

Lesson 6: Peoplehood and Responsibility


Time: 50 minutes
Materials: Photograph: Let My People Go, by Zion Ozeri
Peoplehood Worksheet 6A
Peoplehood Worksheet 6B
White paper and markers, crayons, or colored pencils
Preparation: Set up projector or monitor to display the photograph “Let My People Go.” If projector or monitor is not available, make high-resolution photocopies of the photograph to distribute to students. Also, make enough copies of Peoplehood Worksheets 6A and 6B for the class.
Overview: In this lesson, students consider their responsibility toward world Jewry, in the context of their ongoing exploration of Jewish Peoplehood.
Big Idea:  We are all connected with and responsible toward many different communities, but as Jews we have a particular responsibility toward the Jewish People.

Introduction (10 minutes):

  1. Show students the photograph Let My People Go, by Zion Ozeri.
  2. Ask students what they see going on in the photograph. If they haven’t yet seen or analyzed this photograph, you might want to do a quick objective/subjective reading of the picture with the students.
  3. When you are finished reading/discussing the photograph with students, supply some additional information about picture’s context. Some brief info about the Soviet Jewry Movement can be found in the caption for this photograph. For more in-depth information, visit the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement online.
  4. Ask students:
    Why do you think so many people gave their time and effort to help a group of people they’d never met, who lived halfway around the world?

  

Circles of Responsibility (15 minutes):

  1. Divide the class into small groups of about 5 students each. Hand out Peoplehood Worksheet 6A and ask each group to read the worksheet together and discuss the questions. One student in each group should take notes on the conversation.
  2. Give groups about ten minutes to talk; then bring students back to the large group to share. Discuss the following:
  • What did your group decide?
  • How did you come to your decision?
  • What factors did you weigh? What were the most important factors in helping you reach a decision?
  • Do you think we, as Jews, have a greater responsibility to help other Jews over non-Jews? Why or why not? If so, where do you think this responsibility comes from?
  • How does our responsibility to the Jewish people compare with our responsibility to our other communities? To the world at large?

 

There is a concept in Judaism that we have a special responsibility to help other Jews first and foremost. However, it is a delicate balance, as every person is created in God’s image and every life is sacred. There is no right answer to the question of how we prioritize our responsibilities. It is different for everyone, and individuals often feel connection and responsibility simultaneously toward many different groups.

 

Text Study (15 minutes):

  1. Continue the conversation by bringing in relevant Jewish texts. Hand out Peoplehood Worksheet 6B. Read some or all of the texts together and discuss the questions.
  2. Conclude the conversation by reminding students that for whatever reason—history, belief, values, or something even more intangible—we often feel a powerful connection to the broader Jewish People. This may manifest in a variety of ways, including a feeling of responsibility toward other Jews around the world or a deep sense of fellowship with far-flung Jewish communities.

 

Wrap-Up (10 minutes):

  1. Conclude this unit of study by having each student once again consider his or her relationship with the community—this time, considering both the local and world Jewish communities.
  2. Hand out a sheet of paper and markers, crayons, or colored pencils to each student.
  3. Ask each student to take a few minutes to draw a picture or diagram that shows “you in relation to the Jewish community.” Have students include both the local and world Jewish communities in their diagrams.
  4. Have some students share their drawings and explain what they signify.
    Discuss:
  • How does your relationship to the local community differ from your relationship to the broader world Jewish community?
  • What is the relationship between your local community and other Jewish communities around the world?
  • What does your diagram suggestion about your ideas of Jewish Peoplehood?
  • What do you see as your responsibility to your local Jewish community? What is your responsibility to the world Jewish community?
  • Are you part of other communities as well? Where might these fit in to your diagram?

Compare students’ diagrams with their diagrams from Lesson 2. How are they similar or different? 

Homework:

For homework, you might ask each student to research Jewish communities around the world in need and choose one that he or she would like to help. Encourage students to develop action plans for assisting their chosen communities and have them update the class on their ongoing efforts throughout the ensuing weeks and months.


If your students have not yet done the Introductory Lesson, we recommend beginning with that lesson before progressing through the lessons in this unit.

 

Let My People Go, New York City, 1987

These people are engaging in the important mitzvah of Pidyon Sh’vuyim (the Redeeming of Captives). At a demonstration in New York City, they push for the release of thousands of Jews from the Soviet Union. Notice what it says on the kids’ signs. Where have you heard these words before?

Under Soviet rule, Jews weren’t allowed to practice their religion. They weren’t allowed to immigrate to Israel or America, and many Jewish leaders were put in jail. To help their Jewish brothers and sisters overseas, American Jews held demonstrations, petitioned the U.S. government to pressure the Soviets, and even smuggled Jewish books and religious objects into the USSR. By the end of the 1980s, internal changes and an economic collapse in the Soviet Union, along with pressure from the world Jewish community, changed the situation for the Soviet Jews and gave them new hope. Within a few years, hundreds of thousands of Jews were able to leave the former Soviet Union for Israel.

 

Sample Texts:

 

Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.
– Leviticus (Vayikra) 19:16


 

  …   … . .

When the community is in trouble do not say, “I will go home and eat and drink and all will be well with me.”…Rather, involve yourself in the community’s distress as was demonstrated by Moses (Exodus 27:12) …In this way Moses said, “Since Israel is in trouble, I will share their burden.” Anyone who shares a community’s distress will be rewarded and will witness the community’s consolation.
– Babylonian Talmud, Ta’anit 11a


 

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There is no greater mitzvah than the redemption of captives. For a captive is among those who are hungry, thirsty, and unclothed, and he is in mortal peril. If someone pays no attention to his redemption, he violates the negative commandments: ‘Do not harden your heart or close your hand’ (Deuteronomy 15:7), ‘Do not stand by when the blood of your neighbor is in danger’ (Leviticus 19:16), and ‘He shall not oppress him with exhausting work in your presence’ (Leviticus 25:53). And he has negated the observance of the positive commandments: ‘You shall certainly open up your hand to him’ (Deuteronomy 15:8), ‘And your brother shall live with you’ (Deuteronomy 19:18), ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Leviticus 19:18), ‘Save those who are taken for death’ (Proverbs 24:11), and many other decrees of this nature. There is no mitzvah as great as the redemption of captives.
– Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Matnot Aniyim, 8:10

 

 

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