Israel Conversation Guide

Navigating challenging conversations around Israel isn’t a new concept, but sometimes there is a tendency to focus on the events of the day, rather than the bigger picture. How can we as educators link timely events coming out of Israel—sometimes everyday, it seems—as well as ongoing realities, to the timeless values of our people and our story?

NAVIGATING CHALLENGING CONVERSATIONS

We should strive to help our learners and ourselves view Israel within a broader, timeless context, to reinforce, and sometimes introduce, our core values and the essence of who we are—as individuals and as part of the Jewish people.

These tips and best practices can help you create opportunities for the community to engage around tough issues that most likely are on their minds. They’ll appreciate the opportunity to have open, honest, and fair discussions with their peers in a safe space.

EXPLORING OUR VALUES

This exercise is a window into the diversity of thought, perspectives, and narratives that exist in your community and provides a values-based approach to facilitating conversations around such diversity. How can we as educators create the space for multiple narratives? How do we help facilitate conversations that promote the acceptance of diversity and differing expressions?

Exploring how we understand and express values can help us in considering our own connections to Israel. Even when we disagree, we can strive to find common ground and empathize with others when we realize that we share many values. Through this lens, we can gain deeper appreciation and make space for the validity of other perspectives. 

CURRICULUM TOOLS

תחנות יסוד קשורות בתחום החינוך לישראל

Related Building Blocks of Israel Education