Re: Showing Israeli graphic footage in the classroom

Julie,

The questions regarding how much graphic footage to show to teenagers, how to balance the goal of sensitizing students to what’s going on without harming them psychologically, and how to make sure this is all being done in an age-appropriate way are all very important ones. I have been grappling with these questions as a teacher and a parent for decades, and I don’t pretend to have the answers.

But based on what your son wrote, one thing seems very clear – no matter what position one takes on the above questions, his rabbi seems to have committed a very grievous error by grossly exaggerating the severity of the situation. Anyone who reads the news will know that, thankfully, deaths of Israelis due to terrorism have not been “going on every few hours for the past 10 days”. The actual numbers are that seven Israelis have been murdered by terrorists over the past 2.5 weeks. Of course, that does not diminish the tragedy at all – but it is certainly relevant to your son’s fear that “all the Jews in Israel are going to die”, God forbid.

Furthermore, it’s important for Jews abroad to understand that, by and large, Israelis are NOT living with “incessant and warranted panic”. As all people everywhere, individuals react differently (we have Attenders and Distractors here also), but please trust me that life is going on pretty ordinarily here. Certainly people are checking the news more often and are generally more aware of what is going on around them. And some are taking additional precautions like carrying weapons or preventative tools like pepper spray, and/or temporarily avoiding certain areas. Concern – yes. But the mood here is nothing anywhere near “panic”.

It is very, very important that Jews abroad – both adults and children – be informed and sensitized to what’s going on in Israel, to endeavor to feel the pain of the Jewish People and to try to help through both prayer and action. But in addition to balancing this concern with the very real concern for the psychological health of our children, we also must make sure that the information we present is accurate and proportional. Nobody is helped by painting a picture that is much worse than the reality.

Alan Haber
Alon Shvut
www.rabbihaber.net



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2015 12:59PM by mlb.