Bumper Sticker Song Peulah

Objective:  To expose the chanichim to the different religious, political and social aspects of Israeli society. 

In addition, to give the chanichim an opportunity to think about how and why Israeli society manifests these different views in the ways that it does.  (ie why bumper stickers?)

Bumper Sticker Song Peulah

Mach Hach Ba’Aretz 2006

Objective:  To expose the chanichim to the different religious, political and social aspects of Israeli society. 

In addition, to give the chanichim an opportunity to think about how and why Israeli society manifests these different views in the ways that it does.  (ie why bumper stickers?)

Trigger:  Play the song.  Have one of the madrichim introduce the song and the background. 

Excerpted from the New York Times:  August 16, 2004:

“JERUSALEM - Several days after Yitzhak Rabin was murdered in 1995 by an assassin opposed to the peace process, the Israeli author David Grossman was driving through a forest preserve just outside this city. He noticed a car stopped on the shoulder of the road and slowed to see what might be the matter. The motorist, he saw, was scraping off a bumper sticker that said, "Rabin Rotzeach'' ("Rabin is a Murderer").

“At that moment Mr. Grossman, a novelist and essayist, fathomed the peculiar and intense importance of bumper stickers in Israel, where sometimes an entire car can be pasted with them, endorsing any cause from Palestinian statehood to the expulsion of Arabs to the coming of the Messiah. He began to scribble down examples, enlisted friends and family members to do the same, and ultimately collected 120 slogans, united only by their brevity and certitude.”

This excerpt from The New York times gives us the motivation behind the song.  The song itself is made up of 45 slogans representing bumper stickers that can be found on the cars of Israelis ranging from charedi to secular as well as all political extremes. 

Half of the chanichim should be given bumper stickers while the other half should be given a brief explanation of those same stickers.  They should be instructed to find their match and discuss their bumper sticker with their partner.  Each pair should be given an opportunity to explain their sticker to the rest of the bus.

After each pair explains their sticker, they should paste it on the appropriate “car” (religious left, religious right, political left, political right, and cultural).  The cars should be made big enough so that all bumper stickers can be visible to the whole group. 

Discussion: 

• It is important to review with the chanichim a little bit about each of the groups.  (i.e.:  What are their beliefs?  Where do you imagine these people living?  How would they dress?  What are some other beliefs that they may hold?)   

• What is the significance of using bumpers stickers to announce your opinions?  Why do you think it is so common in Israel (as opposed to America where it is so commonplace)?
• What are the advantages of expression through slogans?  How is this good for society?
• What are the drawbacks of expression through slogans?  How can this negatively affect dialogue on important issues?
• Why do you think politically charged music is so popular in Israel?
• Why do you think it is less common to find political involvement in pop culture in America as opposed to in Israel where it is much more common place. 
• Why do you think political passions run so high in Israel?  What do these slogans say about the friction between movements in Israel? 
• What do the stickers say about the democratic nature of Israel?  About its Jewish character?

Conclusion:  We have seen that Israel society is passionately divided amongst many different lines.  We’ve discussed the difference possibilities of why society is shaped in this way.