| As a group view the multi media presentation.
Before it begins, ask the students to pay attention to changes in
the themes, colors and tones of the images, music etc.
At the end of the presentation, students should be encouraged try
to identify the similarities and differences between their perceptions
of Israel and those that are highlighted in the presentation. In
what ways are the values and images that they presented individually
and collectively in line with those chosen for the presentation?
What accounts for these similarities differences?
The beginning of the presentation began with promises God made
to the Jewish people thousands of years ago and ends with the pictures
of Israeli children and an elderly man. What in their opinion is
the significance of ending the presentation with nameless, regular
people rather than powerful symbolic images?
How did the change in music and in background colors (from dark,
heavy and serious during the biblical references to the light colorful
and playful images against a lue background) reflect the dichotomies
that exist in Israeli culture, society?
Based on the responses that came out of the exercise as well as
the images that hey saw in the presentation, in what ways do they
see Israel as a melting pot and in what ways could it be seen as
a mosaic? Should Israel be working hard at preserving the various
cultures that make up what we have come to know as modern day Israel;
or should the State try to create a new Israel that its citizens
need to adapt to regardless of the customs, language and culture
of their native countries. Compare and contrast this reality with
that which exists in your city/country.
In the last paragraph of the presentation, there was a suggestion
that:
- Israel is the only place on the planet where Jews take
care of themselves"… is this true? Do you agree with
this?
- How do you interpret the sentence "we are extraordinarily
special and imperfectly normal"?
- In the last sentence it says: "but most of al
it (Israel) is the opportunity for each of us to actively shape
and reshape the images we have of ourselves - as Jews- accordingly.
How do you explain the fact that while the focus of the entire presentation
was on Israel, the conclusive sentence referred to shaping and reshaping
our images as Jews and not more specifically as Israelis? To what
extent (if at all) does Israel's existence and development shape our
identities as Jews the world over? How does Israel impact the reality
of Diaspora Jewry and vise versa.
View the presentation - NOW!
View the Gallery of Pictures
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