Hand out the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform without saying what it is. Ask them to guess who wrote it and when. Then tell them.
Children wonder and discover; you facilitate more than you lecture.
- Can a movement change its mind and still be trusted?
- What do you have to know before you are entitled to a view?
- What is the difference between criticising and rejecting?
This is the year they become responsible for what they think, and this unit tests that on the hardest subject available. The spine is our own movement's record: in 1885 Reform Judaism declared it wanted no return to the land; in 1937 it reversed that; in 1999 it affirmed the centrality of the State. Nothing you say about open-mindedness will land like those three documents on a table. Read the foundation's handleWithCare before you teach this, and do not teach it without the education director having seen the entry.
- Atzmaut — independence
- Nakba — catastrophe; how Palestinians name 1948
- Machloket — a disagreement worth keeping
- “Whose land is it?”
- Two peoples have deep and real ties to the same land, and people who genuinely want peace disagree about what follows. Anyone who says it is simple is selling you something. “My friend said Israel is bad.” People disagree about Israel's government very strongly, including many Israelis and many Jews. AND: if anyone blames YOU for what a government does thousands of miles away, that is not a political argument — tell me or your parents.
- Students can trace the Reform movement's position across the three platforms.
- Students can state what happened between 1885 and 1937 and why it changed minds.
- Students can hold two true memories of the same date without collapsing either.
Do not stage anything that makes a student declare a position in front of the room — no debates with sides, no standing on a line. A twelve-year-old asked to pick publicly will pick the safe one, and you will have taught them to hide. Keep the argument on the documents.
Folktale. Not a folktale this week — the primary documents are the text. Use them.
Changemaker. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise — a Reform rabbi who argued for Zionism inside a movement that had formally rejected it, and lived to see it change its mind.
I wonder what our movement might be wrong about right now?
“We read what Reform Judaism said about Israel in 1885, 1937 and 1999 — three different answers. Try at home: ask a grandparent what they were taught about Israel, and how it compares.”