How to create a toolbox for clarity and confidence?
Prep for the Session
Overview
This resource explores our ability to respond to Antisemitism through the value of Resourcefulness.
At-a-Glance:
This resource is designed to help learners construct a metaphorical toolbox filled with tools to help them process and reflect on rising antisemitism.
- For teen audiences
- For practical strategies to respond to acts of antisemitism
Let’s Get Started
FRAME THE ISSUE
Read the following for context:
Decades after the Holocaust, scholar and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said: “Once I thought that antisemitism had ended; today it is clear to me that it will probably never end.”
Facilitator prompts the group:
- React to this quote. How does it sit with you at this moment?
- If you have encountered words of actions that you would describe as antisemitic, what happened and how did you or others respond? Did you feel equipped to respond?
EXPLORE THE VALUE: RESOURCEFULNESS
Read the following:
It can be challenging to know how to feel or act in the face of rising antisemitism. Processing the reality around us can be destabilizing, overwhelming, and frightening. And yet, we have tools, both within and outside ourselves to support us during these times of uncertainty.
The value of resourcefulness – the ability to find ways to overcome difficulties– can help discover the tools that are at our disposal in responding to antisemitism. What are these tools? Where do they come from?
Facilitator prompts the group:
- Do you generally think of resourcefulness as something within yourself or that you draw from others?
- What do you most need right now as a resource to help you navigate the experiences of antisemitism?
- Where or how can you find or create such resources?
JEWISH ANCHOR
Facilitator reads:
In an article entitled “Arise, Shake off the Dust,” Rabbi Haim Sabato, Israeli Rabbi and author, describes the wells of strength from which he drew as a young tankman in the Yom Kippur War and that continue to sustain him today.
Read the following in havruta/pairs and answer the prompts below:
“A person has to contain deep pain and sorrow with the ability to shake off the dust, and discover greatness of spirit. Not greatness arising from foolish arrogance, nor the pride of haughtiness of strength, but rather arising from the inner spirit of our nation, arising from deep faith.”
Facilitator prompts the group:
Rabbi Sabato describes and shows the significance of drawing on tools of strength during times of upheaval. In other words, he encourages us to be resourceful.
- What things does he specifically reference from which we can draw strength during times of upheaval?
- What might you add to that list to help in moments of antisemitic upheaval?
ACTIVITY
CONSTRUCTING YOUR TOOLBOX:
Facilitator prompts the group:
- Scan the QR code or click here to access the worksheet for Constructing Your Toolbox.
- Consider the prompts and select five objects that represent the different “tools” that will support you while contending with antisemitism. The “tools” can be symbolic objects or real ones – people you can turn to, networks and groups, texts, images, poems, quotes, memories, stories.
After completing the worksheet, facilitator prompts the group to review their worksheet:
- Does anything strike you about the five tools you selected? Did you have to leave any out?
- Pair up with a partner and compare your answers.
Prompt action
Facilitator prompts:
- Refer back to your toolbox.
What’s hard?
- •Which was the most difficult box to fill in? Why? Discuss with a partner or the full group
. – Consider what you need to help you find that tool.
What’s easier?
- Which was the easiest box to fill in? Why?
- How can you commit to helping someone else who is struggling as they face an environment or acts of antisemitism?
Close with intention
Facilitator prompts the group with one or both prompts:
- What can help/remind you to refer back to this toolbox the next time you’re looking for strength around the issue of antisemitism? Write it down.
- Tools and resources are all around us and we need different ones at different times.
- Pick one of the tools from your toolbox and commit to sharing it with a friend. Who will you share it with?
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