Curriculum Overview
FOUNDATIONS: Israel is My Story explores Jews’ connections to Israel, shared society, children’s lives, personal belonging, distance, and conflict.
Big Ideas
- Being Jewish means belonging to a people (Am) and Israel is the land of our people (Eretz). Since I belong to the Jewish people (Am), Israel is part of my story too.
- Children and families live daily life shaped by Jewish time and local culture, while also navigating the complexities of sharing land sacred to multiple peoples and religions.
STRAND 1: Introduction to Shared Space explores the different ethnic and religious groups that live in Israel and the challenges of sharing space.
Big Ideas
- The State of Israel is the shared space of the Jewish people and simultaneously shares space with multiple other peoples.
- We are part of the Jewish People, so Israel is also our shared space.
It was a breath of fresh air to teach the ARZA Canada curriculum with my Confirmation
students. The materials provided for important conversations on multiple truths and
honouring diversity. In these difficult days, the conversations were ideal to give us
foundational tools for navigating questions of the heart...
After completing these sessions we felt confident and proud of being Progressive Zionists.
Rabbi Daniel Mikelberg, Temple Israel Ottawa
STRAND 2: Multiple Narratives Through Maps explores how maps tell a story and encourages questions about how to interpret maps.
Big Ideas
- Maps are subjective, interpretive documents through which individuals express their perspectives and beliefs in the context of the time and place in which they live.
- The map of Israel can be simultaneously historical, political, religious and geographic in showing how space is shared.
STRAND 3: My Zionism explores the history, complexities, and contemporary meanings of Zionism as Jewish self-determination, culminating in defining their own personal connection to it.
Big Ideas
- Jewish connections to Zion and Zionism, the quest for Jewish self-determination, have multiple evolving permutations reflective of the times in which one lives and the realities of living into the dream of Jewish self-determination.
PARENT EDUCATION: A series of 6 parent sessions included. Three sessions complement Strands 1 and 2, and three more complement Strand 3. Parent education is intended to provide the same material as their children, but with a framing and depth appropriate for adults.
