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Rethinking How We Commemorate Yom Ha'Zikaron & Yom Ha’Atzmaut

Posted on 04/05/2024 @ 06:00 AM

Tags: CAJE Spotlight, Jewish Schools & Educational Services

Photo by Chris Hearn on Unsplash

In the aftermath of October 7th, amidst heightened antisemitism and anti-Zionism, Yom Ha’atzmaut and Yom Hazikaron hold deeper significance than ever before.

 

Many Jews are asking:

  • How can we celebrate when so many are suffering?
  • How can we remember the trauma of our past, while we’re still experiencing it?
  • How can we capture the heartbreak we have experienced while at the same time, highlighting the gratitude we feel?

 

This past week, CAJE presented a pivotal webinar focused on empowering our Jewish institutions and professionals to innovate in how they commemorate of Yom Ha’atzmaut and Yom Hazikaron.

 

Led by CAJE’s Director of Early Childhood and Congregational Education, Yehudis Smith, the webinar was enriched by insights from M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education, a national organization that helps educators and organizations design compelling educational experiences.

 

The goal of the webinar was not to provide participants with a list of “shoulds” and “should nots,” but to help them discover frameworks they can use to create intentional and dynamic programming that resonates with each community’s demographic.

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Using the materials M² provided, Yehudis guided educators and program directors through a step-by-step programming creation process:

 

  1. Find your narrative: What type of storyteller do you want to be? Participants were given various prompts to exercise their minds and narrow in on the narrative they hope to keep at the center of their programming.
  2. Focus on values: Focusing on specific Jewish values can be very centering and clarifying when creating community programming. By choosing values that resonate with you and using them as a focus point, more meaningful programming will emerge and will resonate with your community of learners.
  3. Program laboratory: Once you have found your narrative and focused on resonant values, you are ready to go through a step-by-step program development process that combines the narrative, values, program type, program concept, desired outcomes, and relevant educational resources.

 

Aside from being practical, helpful, and fruitful, the webinar was incredibly uplifting. Participants left with a roadmap of how to create impactful community programming and a multitude of tools and resources.

 

Together, we explored how we honor these significant days, making them not only a reflection of our history but also relevant to our present and certainly our future.

 

For more information about creating relevant and meaningful Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzma’ut commemorations, contact YehudisSmith@caje-miami.org