Happy Birthday, Israel

During our past week day sessions, we celebrated Israel's 65th birthday. The actual day of "Yom Ha'Atzma'ut" (Independence Day) was on Tuesday, but we celebrated on Wednesday as well. We began by taking a close look at Israel's national anthem, "Ha'Tikvah" (The Hope). After reading a short blurb about the song's history, it occurred to us that the song is a wonderful reflection of the Edot. Its influences came from different countries, all combining to create an Israeli anthem. The lyrics were written by a native of Galicia (Poland) and set to music by a native of Moldavia (around the area of Rumania today). The melody was inspired by a theme in the opera, "Maldau" written by the Czech composer, Smetana, who based the theme on Scandinavian folk songs he had heard.

After reading together about the song's history, I conducted a brief review of what we had learned in Jewish history this year. The focus of this brief review was on the fact that throughout most of Jewish history, certainly since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., we have lived in countries all over the world at the invitation of those who ruled those countries. In many cases, we were forced to leave countries at a moment's notice. After the Holocaust, thousands of Jews were stranded in displaced persons' camps in Europe. They couldn't return to the countries they had lived in before the war, and the U.S. and other countries were making it very difficult for many Jews to enter as immigrants. When Israel was declared a nation on May 14, 1948, we achieved our "two thousand year old hope...to be a free nation in our land, the Land of Zion and Jerusalem" (lyrics from "Ha'Tikvah"). We discussed how Israel is the only nation in the world today which protects its citizens not only within its borders, but outside its borders as well (the rescue of Yemenite and Ethiopian Jews and the raid on Entebbe, to offer just a few examples). It's not only Israeli Jews who have their own government and military to protect them. Jews all over the world know that there is a land we can go to (or who may "come to us") in times of need, or which will accept us immediately if we make aliya (immigrate).

We then read the Hebrew words of the anthem and translated them, then sang the anthem several times through. During t'fila, Rabbi Greninger led us in singing the anthem again.

We used the last half hour of the session drawing the Israeli flag, which is known in Israel as the "Kachol Lavan" (the blue and white).  This may sound like a simple exercise, but I'm proud to say that the students drew the flag following my directions - IN HEBREW.  I used the "Yom Ha'Atzma'ut" lesson in the Hebrew through Movement program, teaching the vocabulary the students would need to understand my commands the previous week. They remembered what we had learned, and everyone followed the commands perfectly.

Once the flag was drawn, I reverted to English and asked the students to think about what we had discussed earlier, and to write one sentence on the face of their flag describing what Israel means to them. I gathered the flags at the end of each session, and hung them on one of the hallway bulletin boards, to share "What Israel Means to Me."  Below are some examples:

"To me Israel was always supposed to be there, to always be a protector of other nations."

"Israel means a Jewish place that reaches out to all the Jews around the world. To me."

"Israel before and after everything is still the toughest "state" known. They have gone through more than any one person ever."

"Israel means to me a place that will not die. As long as there is a single Jew, Israel will not be lost."

"To me, Israel is my homeland and my people."

"To me, Israel is Judaism's center point and a place with rich history."

"To me, Israel is a safe home where Jews are not disrespected."

"Israel is a place I want to go to."

If you're interested, above is a film Josh, my satellite teacher, took of the Hebrew Through Movement Israeli flag lesson.