On The Road To Statehood

Location:Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Name of implementing organization:UJA Federation Centre for Enhancement of Jewish Education (formerly the Board of Jewish Education)
Date of initial project approval:February 2005
Date of project renewal:October 2007

Brief description of the local Jewish community

The 2006 Census reported 189,000 Jews in the Greater Toronto Area.

There are 21 elementary day schools, 13 high schools and more than 50 supplementary programs, which serve over 17,000 students. 52% of children ages 6 – 17 receive some form of Jewish education.

Project aims and objectives

 

• To teach students about the events leading up to Kaf Tet b’November and the creation of the State of Israel
• To introduce students to source material about early Zionist history

 

Project Description

This project has developed an internet site entitled “On The Road To Statehood“ for Jewish students in middle schools in the Diaspora. The text has been written by the Yad Ben Zvi Institute in Jerusalem; the activities have been developed by staff members of the Centre for Enhancement of Jewish Education (formerly the Board of Jewish Education) in Toronto, and reviewed by Yad ben Zvi.

The curriculum is designed to be taught as part of a school’s Jewish History curriculum. It is comprised of 20 chapters, which can be taught in one semester or over the course of a full year, depending upon the amount of time devoted to the curriculum, and the number of activities being completed by students.

The teacher’s guide is available on the website. It provides information regarding the different ways that the website can be used in class. For example, teachers may choose to use only selected chapters (for example, significant events such as the aliyot, underground movements, etc.). The site can also be used in informal education settings, such as youth movements or camps.

Once the site has been tested, the applicant hopes to have it translated into Hebrew for use by schools that teach Ivrit b’Ivrit.

Main budget elements

BJE staff time
Computer programming
Graphic design
Animation for games
Translation to Hebrew

The project's successes

The site is complete and ready to be be tested.