Section archive - Learning Resources

A few years ago, in conversation with The Covenant Foundation about ways to engage the Jewish community in teaching and learning about migration, I suggested that the Bintel Brief, a newspaper column that used to run in the Jewish Daily Forward, might serve as an untapped resource. These letters from the Forward record the ordinary stories and dilemmas of newcomers making their way in a new land. While many of the details are grounded in the context of Jewish immigration in early 20th century New York, the letters raise universal questions about integration, assimilation, and acculturation, themes as timely now as they were when they were written. Teachers, students, all of us, needed to read the Bintel Brief to understand our past, present, and future better. The Covenant Foundation agreed. A little less than a year later Re-Imagining Migration produced Immigration and Identity: Jewish Immigrants and the Bintel Brief.

The Office of Rabbi Sacks will soon launch a new 10-unit curriculum called ‘Ten Paths to God’ based on the writings and teachings of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. This curriculum, which has been generously sponsored in honour of Chaim (Harry) and Anna Schimmel, has been developed as a free resource that can be adapted and used by anyone involved in formal or informal Jewish education – in middle or high schools, for youth movements, on campuses, or as part of outreach organisations, synagogues and community centres. Each unit will include an opening video and transcript, together with student and educator guides at entry and advanced levels.

The reality of World War II and the Holocaust forced women to cope with new, unforeseen circumstances and fundamental dilemmas, compelling them to make difficult and often fateful decisions. They did their best to protect their families, to obtain food, to find work, and to defend their children—sometimes even paying the unbearable price of separation. Women took on a number of roles at that time: they ran public soup kitchens and children’s dorms, they worked as teachers and caretakers, as doctors and nurses, and they even joined partisan groups and underground resistance movements. The current issue of "Teaching the Legacy" provides a platform for the unique voice of women during the Holocaust: a discussion of the exciting lives of Lena Küchler-Silberman and Rachel Auerbach, and their rescue and relief efforts during the Holocaust; and an account of the female inmates of the death-camps Ravensbrück and Auschwitz-Birkenau.n.

Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month (JDAIM) begins next week. It’s been held in February for the last ten years and is a worldwide unified initiative for Jewish organizations to raise awareness and foster inclusion of people with disabilities and mental health conditions. JDAIM is a call to action as we act in accordance with our Jewish values, honoring the gifts and strengths that each one of us possesses. ELI Talks has a number of talks that are great conversation-starters for your community. ELI Talks have been shared in adult education programs, for inclusion committees and also with high school programs. They can serve as a limmud for your board meeting or other committee meeting–during JDAIM or at any time during the year