Am Yisrael Chai

I’m biased, of course, but one of the finest features of Jewish life in Nashville are the grade-level programs that our congregational religious schools host each year, bringing all of our K-6th grade students together once a year for interactive programming around various holidays and topics.  At Micah, our 4th graders study Israel all year to ultimately serve as docents for the 1st Grade community “Shalom, Israel!” program each spring – and this year’s program felt more important than ever before. 

Adorable student passengers arrive at the El Al ticket counter and make fast work of coloring their self-portrait page in their passports. Then they board the virtual flight for Tel Aviv conducted by our student flight attendants and pilots. They are oriented to their upcoming adventures with the in-flight story, The Everywhere Chair by Nati Bait, and eventually deplane with their assigned tour guides to the sanctuary where they are greeted with a heartfelt singing of HaTikvah. 

By the program’s conclusion, our student travelers have met and taken their picture with Curry the camel, written and left a prayer at the Kotel, found treasure at an archaeological dig, shopped in the shuk, and enjoyed a delicious Israeli feast at our kibbutz. It is always a whirlwind morning marked by our 4th graders shining in their roles and responsibilities and all the 1st graders delighting in the very real sensory experiences of a distant, dreamlike place. Many 4th graders remember their time as 1st grade travelers fondly, and all are sure to let me know how tired they are. Once all the 1st graders have departed, we read the prayers left at the Kotel before packing them up for our next actual trip to Jerusalem. 

Every year I marvel at these young minds and all that they can and do hold. Some of the prayers are petitions, asking for good grades, a puppy (once with their home address included for easy delivery) or a cat (“make sure it is white and black!”) – these details matter when dealing with the divine! Other notes are sweetly and sweepingly generous – prayers for peace, love, good health (“please make daddy’s allergies go away”) or hoping for another sibling. Often our favorites include fantastical prospects like praying for “unicorns to be real.”  And every year there are one or two prayers that leave me feeling breathless.  This year, two precious 6-7-year-olds wrote: 

Dear G-d, 

I pray for You to help the people in Israel to get better.  Please do this. 

*and* 

Dear G-d, 

I pray for everyone to live during the Israel and Gaza war. 

It should not surprise us that young children absorb the world’s woes, nor should it surprise us that such little bodies contain the biggest hearts. So, thank goodness they are growing up in a Jewish community that cares to comfort and collaborate, modeling that denominational differences in the diaspora need not matter as much as many may suggest or assume. 

To that end and thanks to the generosity of the Jewish Federation during Covid, our congregational educators and teachers had the opportunity to study with Israeli authors Robbie Gringras and Abi Sterne who recently published Stories for the Sake of Argument: Stories to get you arguing with your family, friends, and community.  And that’s a good thing! 

The overall premise of their work draws from the research of Dr. Sivan Zakai which indicates that students as young as 3rd grade are developmentally ready for and respond well to studying complex issues and learning how to have constructive conversations. For the last few years, our 4th and 5th graders have piloted this material and look forward the lessons when we revisit the complexities. 

In short, I remain grateful to the Federation for their support of the most holy, important work I can imagine. Jewish education matters more now than ever.