Sunday, January 25

Shalom Chaverim! Can you believe that it is already the end of January?! Time is really flying.

We are moving right along in our Holocaust curriculum.  We have spent the last two weeks talking about prejudice and antisemitism.  What drives intolerance? Yesterday, as part of this conversation, we learned about the Not In Our Town movement (https://www.niot.org/about).  Not In Our Town began in Billings, Montana in the early 1990's when incidents of harassment and violence against minority groups were becoming prevalent.  Tombstones in the Jewish cemetery were overturned, the home of a Native American family was tagged with swastikas, members of an African-American church were intimidated, and bricks were thrown through homes that displayed menorahs during Chanukah. Rather than accept what was happening in their community, neighbors rallied to take a stand against hate.  The town came together in support of the victims.   Those who were not targets became allies for those who were.  Actions taken by the people of Billings became  a model for other communities around the country who also spoke out against hate.  Thus the Not in Our Town movement was begun as a way to build safe, inclusive communities.

We talked about this modern movement in addition to listening to survivor testimonies.  We compared stories and analyzed the commonalities.  I want the class to understand that the fight against intolerance is an ongoing struggle, and one that is reoccurring in the Jewish narrative.  I want the kids to move forward with the acknowledgement that they can use their voices to become allies for those who are being treated unjustly and to stop hate and intolerance before they become pervasive.

Next Sunday we are going to explore the concept of propaganda.  We will begin to study Nazi propaganda in order to analyze the source of European anti-semitism during the Holocaust.

This week in Hebrew, we learned the prayer Baruch Shenatan - a prayer to help us thank Gd for Torah.  We learned the root: kuf, dalet, shin, which means holy or set apart.  It appears that everyone in class is comfortable with the recitation of the prayer.  Next week we are moving onto the prayers for the procession of the Torah.  In two weeks we will begin learning Torah blessings!