in conjunction with: The Israel Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport

Key Theme for 5757 and 5758:

"The Centenary of the first Zionist Congress
&
Fifty Years since the Establishment of the State of Israel"

Director-General Circular

Goals and Objectives / 1. General

1. Theme Goals


1. Overall goals
1. To strengthen students' attachment, their bond, and their feeling of belonging to Israel as a country, and -- for that purpose --
2. To afford them a deeper understanding of the historic and cultural ties between the Jewish people and Eretz Israel, together with
3. A greater ability to perceive the spiritual heritage that has been handed down from one generation to the next as a vital part of Jewish-Zionist existence.


2. The State of Israel
1. To assist the student to grasp the profound significance of the establishment of the State of Israel as a sovereign Jewish state embodying the Zionist idea;
2. To emphasize the centrality of the State of Israel in the life of the Jewish people today;
3. To explore with students the nature of Zionism today, following the creation of the State of Israel, and
4. To examine jointly, possible directions of the renewal of Zionism, both in the present and after the year 2000.


3. The Jewish People
1. To foster an awareness among Israeli and Diaspora youngsters of the fact that they are all part of the Jewish people;
2. To strengthen among students the bond and attachment between all sectors of the Jewish people -- in Israel and in the Diaspora --
3. To concurrently increase students' sense of being bound by the saying, "All Jews are responsible for each other" (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 27, 72);
4. To re-examine how Israelis and Jews who choose freely to live in the Diaspora relate to each other; and
5. To consider how far Jews living in the Diaspora have a responsibility for the future of the Jewish State.

   
   

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2. Objectives


1. Eretz Israel and the State of Israel
1. To foster student awareness and understanding of the universal and Jewish background against which the Zionist idea evolved, and to evaluate in perspective the achievement of a handful of Zionist Jews in the history of the Jewish people;
2. To help students grasp -- through academic study and an experiential approach -- the Zionist idea and Zionist activism, together with the innumerable difficulties that accompanied their implementation;
3. To familiarize students with the different trends in Zionism, the anti-Zionist movements, and to explore their modern successors;
4. To analyze the lessons of the Shoah (Holocaust), and their significance for the State of Israel as a place where the Jews can live in their own sovereign state;
5. To acknowledge and identify the central, complex dilemmas and problems with which society is currently wrestling in Israel - issues whose roots predate the beginning of modern Zionism, and which became more acute with the establishment of the Zionist movement; and to address these problems and dilemmas;
6. To address the central issues by studying the facts, identifying and evaluating the various factors and options - and adopting a position;
7. To develop tools for the critical evaluation of phenomena, opinions, and behaviors in the present and their sources in the history of Zionism;
8. To come to grips with the question of whether Zionism completed its task with the founding of the State of Israel, or whether it still has ongoing or new roles in each sub-period;
9. To enable students to grapple with the new approaches to Zionism, and, in particular, "post-Zionism";
10. To seek out areas of overlap between Jewish identity, Zionism, and humanism, and to grasp the implications and the links between these three sectors;
11. To heighten student identification with the Zionist idea and its uniqueness - and with the State of Israel which is grappling with its implementation;
12. To review together with students what Zionism means on an individual basis to them, as well as its relative importance;
13. To recall that Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel began in the Biblical period, and was revived with the beginning of Zionism.


2. The Israeli Nation - as part of the Jewish People
1. To explore the complex relationship that has existed and evolved over the generations between Israel and the Diaspora;
2. To become aware of the major centers of the Jewish people, and of the main trends existing in the Diaspora and Israel;
3. To find denominators common to Jews throughout the world;
4. To address the issue of the nature of the tie between the Jews living in the State of Israel and Jews living outside Israel, and how students imagine it developing in the future;
5. To find practical ways of expressing the view of "shared responsibility for the continued existence of the Jewish people";
6. To establish warm and dynamic ties with corresponding groups of students and teachers living in the Diaspora.

   
   

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3. Discussion of Priorities:

The above overall goals and objectives are wide-ranging and comprehensive. It goes without saying that no single teacher or student is expected to address every single one of these goals or objectives. Educational institutions - and their collective staffs - will need to select the particular goals and objectives that they consider to be important, interpreting and adapting them to suit their specific population and environment.

It should be emphasized that the stress should be laid on approaches, positions, experiences, and behaviors, rather than on extensive bodies of knowledge (not "supplementing history classes") -- although the acquisition of knowledge is, of course, the key to an ability to hold in-depth discussions.

Ultimately, educators must ask themselves the following question -- and should think through their own individual responses to it:
* What do I want this student to have experienced by the end of the next two years?

One of the answers might well be:
* For the student to feel a bond, an attachment, love, pride and a feeling of belonging to his or her Jewish state, people and culture.

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