Modern Slavery Curriculum Project Curricula for Teenagers
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Modern Slavery Curriculum Project Curricula for Teenagers Rabbi Debra Orenstein, Project Founder & Chair Rabbi Erin Hirsh, Project Manager & Editor March 1, 2015 – 10 Adar 5775 In memory of Rabbi Jehiel Orenstein USE GUIDELINES: These materials are freely available for non-commercial reproduction and use, with attribution, in schools, camps, homes, synagogues, civic group meetings and similar settings. For other uses, please contact the project founder or managing editor. Contact information is below. STAY IN TOUCH: To receive updates from the project team, please email: Rabbi Debra Orenstein [email protected] or Rabbi Erin Hirsh [email protected]. To receive updates from the group Free the Slaves, email [email protected]. PROVIDE FEEDBACK: Please take a short online survey about how you utilized these materials and how useful they were for you. Your feedback will help the team strengthen the curriculum over time. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2NVY2BN 2 Table of Contents Description of Project Page 3 - 4 A Note about Numbers Page 5 Curriculum Writer Biographies Page 6 - 7 B’nai Mitzvah Rabbi Debra Orenstein Making the Mitzvah Your Own: Bar/Bat Mitzvah Anti-Slavery Projects Page 8 Index A arranged by Torah portion Page 21 Index B arranged by Theme Page 24 Ninth – Twelfth Grades INFORMAL EDUCATION Amy Dorsch Page 34 Session One: Yesterday We Were Slaves...Today, THEY are (WHAT) Page 35 Session Two: The Faces of Modern Day Slavery (WHO) Page 48 Session Three: Taking it Home: Being a Consumer with a Conscience Page 56 Ninth – Twelfth Grades FORMAL EDUCATION Synagogue Confirmation Class Rabbi Cheryl Weiner Page 66 Lesson One: Slavery Today Page 67 Lesson Two: Customizing a Haggadah: Page 69 Part A: Stories/Testaments Page 70 Part B: Songs/Contemporary Music Page 71 Part C: Customizing a Haggadah: Art Page 72 Part D: Action Plan on Eliminating Slavery Page 73 Day School Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot Lesson One: Contemporary Slavery and Jewish Values Page 76 Lesson Two: What Can We Do? What We Can Do Page 83 The complete curriculum, including lessons for children and for college students & adults, is available at www.freetheslaves.net/Judaism. Modern Slavery Curriculum Project - Visit: https://www.freetheslaves.net/judaism 3 Description of the Modern Slavery Curriculum Project Why is this night not different from all other nights? Because there are still slaves. Even as we sit around our seder tables, singing Avadim Hayinu (Once We Were Slaves), tens of millions of slaves are still working and suffering all around the world. The Modern Slavery Project seeks to educate the Jewish community about 1) different dimensions of modern slavery; 2) our responsibility as Jews to liberate slaves and keep people free; and 3) actions we can take to help end slavery in our lifetimes. The curricula are written by rabbis and Jewish educators from the Reform, Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Renewal movements. The lessons begin with kindergarten and continue through adulthood. They are designed to be accessible and engaging for students in supplemental schools and day schools, youth groups and confirmation classes, adult education classes and social gatherings. In many cases, texts and ideas presented for one age- group or setting can easily be adapted for another. We hope that you will return to this material in successive years for Passover – and throughout the year – to teach Jewish values, the Exodus story, contemporary “hot” topics, tikkun olam, and mitzvot such as Shabbat (“that they may rest as well as you”) and loving the stranger (“for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”). We are making the curricula available at no cost because we want to encourage you to use them and share them with friends and colleagues. Until there are no more slaves, our goal is that everyone who discusses the Exodus or reads a Haggadah (and certainly every school and institution) will connect the ancient Jewish narrative of liberation to the needs and moral demands of slaves today. On Freetheslaves.net/Judaism, we have collected “seder starters” –i.e., readings and activities to enhance model seders, community seders, home seders. Whether you are teaching the Haggadah, leading a seder, or attending a seder, there are resources for almost every situation. We have posted all the resources that we created or curated on the Faith In Action page of the organization Free the Slaves. We chose this host because of the extraordinary work it does every day to live up to its name. We hope that everyone who downloads the curated materials will consider making a donation to Free the Slaves. The Torah teaches that God saw our affliction, heard our cry, and knew our pain when we were slaves in Egypt (Exodus 3:7). Having been freed, we can now do the same for others. And more: following God’s ways, we can lift people up, out of the house of bondage. Modern Slavery Curriculum Project - Visit: https://www.freetheslaves.net/judaism 4 We invite your feedback. We would love to learn how you used the curricula and Seder Starters. We look forward to hearing what they inspired you to do and to invent. Wishing you a sweet and freeing holiday, Rabbi Debra Orenstein, Project Founder & Chair – [email protected] Rabbi Erin Hirsh, Project Manager & Editor – [email protected] Modern Slavery Curriculum Project - Visit: https://www.freetheslaves.net/judaism 5 A Note about Numbers: There are between 21 and 36 million enslaved people in the world today. Researchers have such a wide range in their estimates because slavery is a hidden, illegal activity, and precise numbers are notoriously difficult to ascertain. Different organizations use different numbers, as do the various authors of these curricula. There are more slaves in the world today than ever before. Modern Slavery Curriculum Project - Visit: https://www.freetheslaves.net/judaism 6 Curriculum Writer Biographies Dorsch, Amy Amy is a proud member of Department of Teen Learning at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Amy has worked in multiple Jewish educational settings including a large Conservative synagogue and day school in Winnipeg, Manitoba, before heading to Toronto to work as the Outreach and Engagement Coordinator at Hillel of Greater Toronto. It was in Toronto that Amy decided to turn her passion for inspiring young Jews to live joyful Jewish lives into a profession and moved to New York to earn her Master’s Degree at the Davidson Graduate School for Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Helfgot, Rabbi Nathaniel Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot is chair of the Department of Talmud and Rabbinics at Salanter Akiba Riverdale High School in New York City and is on the faculty of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School and the Drisha Institute of Jewish Education. He serves as rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Teaneck, New Jersey and is on the faculty of the Wexner Heritage Foundation. He has written and edited a number of volumes in various areas of Jewish studies and lectures widely throughout the country. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees with honors from Yeshiva University and serves on the boards of many communal institutions and organizations. Hirsh, Rabbi Erin Rabbi Erin Hirsh has worked with Reform, Conservative, Renewal, Secular and Reconstructionist Jewish communities throughout North America. She is the Director of Part-time Jewish Education at Gratz College. Previously, she was the Director of Congregational Education for the Reconstructionist Movement. A graduate of Vassar College and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Erin has dedicated her rabbinate to ensuring that Jewish education is engaging, relevant and meaningful for everyone involved. Erin is a partner in JEWEL: Jewish Educational Wisdom, Experience & Leadership. www.JEWELconsulting.net. Modern Slavery Curriculum Project - Visit: https://www.freetheslaves.net/judaism 7 Orenstein, Rabbi Debra Rabbi Debra Orenstein pursues her passion for teaching Torah as a guest speaker and scholar-in-residence across North America and as spiritual leader of her home synagogue, Congregation B'nai Israel in Emerson, New Jersey. She formerly taught in the rabbinical, graduate school, undergraduate, conversion, Elderhostel, and continuing education programs at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California. She received her training at Princeton University (A.B. summa cum laude), University of Judaism (B.H.L.), The Jewish Theological Seminary of America (M.A. and ordination), and The Meisner-Carville School (Two-year Program). Debra is the author or editor of Lifecycles 1: Jewish Women on Life Passages and Personal Milestones, Lifecycles 2: Jewish Women on Biblical Themes in Contemporary Life (co-edited with Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman), and From Generation to Generation (co- authored with Rabbi Israel Mowshowitz). She is a columnist for The Jewish Standard and has written essays for Etz Hayim Humash (2001), The Women's Prophets Commentary (2004), Making Prayer Real: Leading Jewish Spiritual Voices on Why Prayer is Difficult and What To Do About It (2010), among others. Debra has also published CD’s of her lectures on a variety of themes through ShareWonder Media. Ever since she read A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery in 2013, Debra has focused on freeing slaves. That same year, Debra read about Jessica Baer of Fair Lawn, NJ, who helped to free 30 enslaved children in Ghana as part of her Bat Mitzvah project. Since then, Debra’s question – to herself and to others – has been: this is what a 12-year-old did; what can you do? Weiner, Rabbi Cheryl Rabbi Cheryl Weiner, PhD, BCC , serves as a Rabbi, Educator and Chaplain, specializing in curriculum development, experiential education and creative rituals. As a Rabbinic Fellow for the American Jewish World Service and member of the Miami Jewish Community Relations Council, Rabbi Weiner has joined advocacy teams in Washington D.C.