GENERAL STUDIES CURRICULUM:
Zionism, Holocaust Elective
By: Rav Yotav Eliach
A main goal of the course is to show our students the centrality of the land of Israel in Judaism throughout the ages. Our students have gone through 10-12 years of formal Jewish education by the time they take this elective. The concept of Israel has been touched on since they have been in pre-school. However no single course ever attempts to make the connection between the Tanach, Mishnah, Gemara, Halachah, Jewish History, Jewish Philosophy, and the modern state of Israel. This course attempts to make clear to the student the role of Israel in the Jewish way of life/religion from the days of Avraham until today. Furthermore the course explores the connection between tefillot we say every day, the Chagim we observe, the various Jewish texts that our students study, and the modern state of Israel.
The course attempts to show our students that the Jewish connection to the land of Israel is not a modern phenomena but rather an idea that has existed as long as there has been a Jewish Nation/People. There is a clear attempt to put the concept of Tzion/Israel as one of the pivotal and central ideas found in Judaism. The students are taught that the re-establishment of Israel, certainly in the aftermath of the Holocaust, was nothing short of a modern day miracle. Indeed we are quite lucky to be living at a time when the Magen David is not some insignia one is forced to wear in shame but an emblem found on a flag and on the wing of an Israeli fighter aircraft… Slightly over 50 years ago the position of world Jewry was radically different than it is today now that Israel has been reestablished.
The course is structured to tell the modern day story of the return to Israel in the last century and a quarter in great detail. The course is structured to clearly address and answer the claims and arguments made by many individuals and organizations that are anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, or anti-Semitic. Finally, the course wants to sensitize the students to the new role the Jewish people find themselves in the land of Israel: we are no longer an ethnic minority group that is powerless and persecuted, yearning for a better day. We are a majority in our own land with all the responsibilities and challenges that are connected to having power.
The Holocaust/Shoah segment will focus in on how Nazism came to power, what their ideology was and how they were able to implement it in front of the world! We will clearly draw the distinction between World War II and the Shoah. The course will also examine the lessons to be drawn from the Shoah Religiously, Politically, Sociologically, and Historically. Finally the course will examine why the Shoah is a unique event from a Jewish and Non Jewish Historical perspective.