Goal:  The chanichim should understand the role that the Jewish community plays in fighting assimilation. They should understand which aspects of it are most important and why. They should also see how serious the problem of assimilation is and determine ways we can fight it.

Materials: make index cards with names of things that you would find in a Jewish community (below)

Trigger: Each group gets a set of index cards with names of different places/organizations/etc… you would find in a Jewish community. Each place has a price on the back. Each group is given $3000. They have to prioritize and decide in which order to place the cards, and they must also choose some things to have in their community over other as funding is limited. Hadracha should play devil’s advocate in the group and make sure the chanichim discuss each choice. (Afternoon school over Jewish elementary school, community kollel over shul….).

Discuss: Each group presents its order and why it chose that. Come to a conclusion as to which 3 were most important and focus on why those three.

Have the chanichim compare this pretend town to the towns we saw. What did these towns lack? (jewish schools….) did this make a difference in the fact that jews left or assimilated??

Read the poem the vanishing Jew.  Do we think this could really happen? Why or why not? In what ways can we stop assimilation? How does the Jewish community fit into this?

(Is it easier to do this in Israel? Is there assimilation in Israel?)

Look at the town we’re in now. Is it important to raise money to rebuild Jewish communities here where Judaism has died out? Or would the money be better spent sending a kid to a Jewish summer camp, or to organizations in Israel?

Do we need/want a Jewish presence in Warren, PA.?

Recently organizations have been spending lots of money and successfully restarting Jewish communities in Warsaw and in Poland and Russia. What do you think about this?

Where is the future of the Jewish people? Warren, Warsaw or Israel?

Conclusion:  As we see all these abandoned Jewish communities on our way to Washington the problem of assimilation becomes clearer. Only by building strong Jewish communities will we be able to fight assimilation.

Jewish High School

$750

Jewish Community Center

$750

Jewish Elementary School

$750

Synagogue

$1000

Community Kollel/Beit Midrash

$750