4th Grade and the Timeline of Judaism: You Are Here
Many students wanted to know more about what order all these exciting Jewish holidays and history take place, and how they fit into other important events in the histories that they know from home and school. For example, in the Torah, when was Noah’s Ark, when was Moses? How does the Chanukah story fit in, that’s a great Jewish story but it’s not even in the Torah at all! What kind of technology was invented yet for different holidays; did the Maccabees have guns? How does the Purim holiday story even fit in — it has its own book and takes place in ancient Persia?? And how does any of this fit into American history? When did my particular family arrive in this country?
So, we checked out a very long timeline of important Jewish events — from the legendary times of the Creation story, through archaeological times of many Torah stories and ancient Israel, all the way through modern history, to today (2019: You Are Here). Students got to see just how long our shared timeline is, drew illustrations of their favorite events, and played many fun games with it.
We also noted that our Jewish Timeline was mostly about Israel and Europe, and we set about to make it somewhat less Eurocentric. After all, Jews live / have lived all over the world! Students came up with world events to add, from school and home. (Our indefatigable Madrichim looked up the dates, so we could add them to our people’s story.)
Students were particularly interested in adding personal events — such as the class birthday in 2010 — and American-related characters. For example, one class was very interested to find out that Native Americans got to this land around the same time, way back, that Joseph went to Egypt in our Passover story (early 1500s BCE). We also added George Washington (we picked that time in 1790 when Washington wrote letters to early-American Jews, to assure us that we’d have religious freedom in America), we added Hamilton vs. Burr, we reflected on WWII.
It was a great way to put our stories into order, and to fit their own stories into a giant picture of Jewish history.
Maybe someday we’ll even look ahead to what the future of Judaism might be.
Family discussion-starters
- What is your family’s history? Did your family come to America from someplace else — when, and from where? What events has your family been part of? (Let’s put these on our timeline, too!)
- Before we started improving it — and even now — our timeline tends to focus on ancient Israel, and Europe, and a little bit of America. But, that’s wrong, because Jews live / have lived all over the world, and have made history everywhere. What is Eurocentrism? What’s Ashkinormativity? Can we find some stories about Jews in other places, to have a more complete understanding of Judaism? (If you choose this route, you might try stories of the Silk Road, Sephardim, Mizrahim, Iranian Jews, etc. Enjoy!)
- Jewish history is LONG, and it just keeps going! What might the future of Judaism be like? What might Judaism be like in twenty years when you’re a grownup, or in a hundred years when you’re very very old? What might Judaism be like in a thousand years?
Saturday Holidays class: The Tues/Sat 4th graders will be embarking on a several-week journey learning about Shabbat. This week they had an exciting time learning about holiness, and creating what that word really means — it’s a very difficult word to define! We mainly decided that holiness means that you feel more connected with God. Holiness might bring you closer to yourself and other people, too. Students played a game determining whether a word was “ordinary” or “special” and seeing if all special things are holy. They also continued honing their Hebrew skills, while playing numerous Hebrew-related games.
Family discussion-starters:
- How do we rest together in our family? Are there Shabbat rituals that we do, and if so, where do our ritual objects come from? What stories can we tell about the times that we rest together?
- Have you ever experienced holiness, or been to a holy place? What was special about it? What do you think made it holy?
- Are there things we can do, to make ordinary times into special times? Do you think rituals might help to do that?
Announcements
- Closures: There are no Yachad classes on Tuesday Nov 5 for Election Day or on Monday Nov 11 for Veterans Day.
- Camp Style Havdalah Pool Party, Saturday, Nov 16, 3-5pm.
Families that are already connected to URJ Camps will join with prospective campers and their families for a fun night with havdalah, swimming and camp-style games. We look forward to seeing you there! Register here by Nov. 8th. All welcome; 2nd – 6th grade focused.