Key Findings and Next Steps
- Israel is a common term across Hebrew School curricula in Bergen County, New Jersey
- The terms "home," "homeland," "identify with," "mitzvot," "pride," "culture," and "connection" are all linked to the term "Israel" in the Hebrew School curricula
- The term "colonialism" was found to occur frequently across the original Zionist texts from the early 20th century, however it did not occur at all in the Hebrew School curricula
- The term "Arab" was found to occur frequently across the original Zionist texts from the early 20th century, however this term nor its more modern equivalent, "Palestinian," occurred at all in the Hebrew School curricula
Hypotheses
While no definitive conclusions can be drawn from these findings, based on the data collected from the Hebrew School websites, a few new hypotheses can be made:
- Israel education is an important aspect of many Hebrew school curriculums in Northern New Jersey
- Many Hebrew schools emphasize love for, identification with, and connection to Israel as the Jewish homeland in their lessons on Israel
- Hebrew schools curriculums do not tend to emphasize the Palestinian experience, nor the colonial aspect of Zionism that was present in its establishment and growth in the late 19th to mid 20th century
Next Steps
This project was completed over the course of six weeks, and therefore there are considerable gaps in the research and further studies should be done. In particular:
- The sample population should be expanded beyond Northern New Jersey
- Young American Jews should be interviewed in order to obtain first person accounts of their experiences in Hebrew School and their views on Israel
- Hebrew School teachers should be interviewed to provide a better sense of what is taught in the classroom
- Hebrew School administrators and teachers should be interviewed to explain the reasoning behind the content of their curricula
- Surveys should be taken to gain a better understanding of how many young American Jews attended Hebrew School
- Text analyses should be completed for Hebrew Schools of specific Jewish religious sects individually (i.e. text analysis for Reform Hebrew Schools, text analysis for Conservative Hebrew Schools, and text analysis for Orthodox Hebrew Schools) to see potential trends within the various sects of Judaism
I believe that taking these steps can help to show young Jewish Americans where their core beliefs about Israel and the Israel-Palestine conflict potentially originated from, and that this will be helpful in unpacking these beliefs, better comprehending the reality of what is occurring in the Middle East, and finding sympathy for and understanding of the Palestinian cause.