Term 2, Week 3: Holocaust Memorial Day for 6-Year-Olds
Week 3 was definitely one of the hardest sessions so far. It was the UK’s Holocaust Memorial Day, and Exeter was having an exhibition to mark it (the council finally gave in after several years of fighting by the shul president). Remembrance Sunday in November is marked by the whole country, including little kids in schools, but there was no way I was going to discuss the Holocaust with a group of children as young as 4 or 6 – it’s up to their parents to decide when they’re ready to hear about that. Instead, I turned it into a session on tolerance and people who are different.
I began by getting all the children into a circle, and then said that everyone with a first name beginning with a certain letter should come and sit in the middle. This meant two girls (deliberately chosen – you don’t want the most sensitive ones for this), who were very excited to have been picked out. But then I asked them how they would feel if, because their names begin with that letter, I said that they weren’t as good as the others, and so wouldn’t be allowed to do the cooking. Then I asked the rest of the kids how they would feel if that happened to members of their group.
We went on to talk about different people who are treated badly. They found this hard to relate to (we were missing one of the boys who would have really got them going), but after much coaxing from me and the parents, they started to make the connection with people in their classes at school. It was difficult, because most of them are too young to have seen or experienced much in the way of outright prejudice (possibly would have been different in an inner-city area), but I did explain the importance of standing up for other people.
Next I explained very simply the history of the founding of Israel, and the problems with the two groups (Arabs and Israelis) who now both consider the country to be their home, but don’t want to share. I briefly explained the importance of Israel as a refuge and protector for all Jews, but emphasised the dilemma of having two opposing lots of people who both have a right to be there.
I explained that that Arab and Israeli children speak different languages and go to different schools, so they never learn to get along with each other. I told them that in a few schools the children learn together and learn each other’s languages, so they can learn to get along now and so are more likely when they grow up to be able to find a solution together. I talked about One to One Israel’s Lev Yafo project and asked if they thought a fund-raising cookie bake would be a good idea, and they all agreed to do it. (I’d been a bit slow in organising this, so parents had had sponsorship forms the previous week, but most of the fundraising went on afterwards.)
Lastly, I read them the poem “First they came” by Niemöller and we talked about what it might mean. At the suggestion of one of the dads, we decided to write our own version the following week.
That done, we divided the kids up into two teams and made Star of David ginger biscuits. Each family had a plateful to take home to give to sponsors, sell, take into school, or whatever else they wanted to do with them. I took about 50 to the exhibition at the Guildhall, and passed them around to anyone willing to listen to my plug about why we had made them! The final count was somewhere between 250 and 300 biscuits, and we have just finished collecting in all the money. We made a grand total of £120 (pretty good for 8 kids!). They’ve all signed the letter, and it’ll be sent off as soon as I can get a cheque from the parents who control the bank account, which should be any day now.
I began by getting all the children into a circle, and then said that everyone with a first name beginning with a certain letter should come and sit in the middle. This meant two girls (deliberately chosen – you don’t want the most sensitive ones for this), who were very excited to have been picked out. But then I asked them how they would feel if, because their names begin with that letter, I said that they weren’t as good as the others, and so wouldn’t be allowed to do the cooking. Then I asked the rest of the kids how they would feel if that happened to members of their group.
We went on to talk about different people who are treated badly. They found this hard to relate to (we were missing one of the boys who would have really got them going), but after much coaxing from me and the parents, they started to make the connection with people in their classes at school. It was difficult, because most of them are too young to have seen or experienced much in the way of outright prejudice (possibly would have been different in an inner-city area), but I did explain the importance of standing up for other people.
Next I explained very simply the history of the founding of Israel, and the problems with the two groups (Arabs and Israelis) who now both consider the country to be their home, but don’t want to share. I briefly explained the importance of Israel as a refuge and protector for all Jews, but emphasised the dilemma of having two opposing lots of people who both have a right to be there.
I explained that that Arab and Israeli children speak different languages and go to different schools, so they never learn to get along with each other. I told them that in a few schools the children learn together and learn each other’s languages, so they can learn to get along now and so are more likely when they grow up to be able to find a solution together. I talked about One to One Israel’s Lev Yafo project and asked if they thought a fund-raising cookie bake would be a good idea, and they all agreed to do it. (I’d been a bit slow in organising this, so parents had had sponsorship forms the previous week, but most of the fundraising went on afterwards.)
Lastly, I read them the poem “First they came” by Niemöller and we talked about what it might mean. At the suggestion of one of the dads, we decided to write our own version the following week.
That done, we divided the kids up into two teams and made Star of David ginger biscuits. Each family had a plateful to take home to give to sponsors, sell, take into school, or whatever else they wanted to do with them. I took about 50 to the exhibition at the Guildhall, and passed them around to anyone willing to listen to my plug about why we had made them! The final count was somewhere between 250 and 300 biscuits, and we have just finished collecting in all the money. We made a grand total of £120 (pretty good for 8 kids!). They’ve all signed the letter, and it’ll be sent off as soon as I can get a cheque from the parents who control the bank account, which should be any day now.
posted by Gonetomars at 4:58 pm
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