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Regarding Mike's request about non-Torah literature to teach Torah and
ethical values, for the last number of years I have been teaching, writing
and publishing in that area with R. Steve Bayar, a Schecter/Ramah educator
and congregational Rabbi. We have used videos of a secular nature -unlike
Norman Amsel's wonderful Jewish TV episode based curriculum - to teach
Pirkei Avot, Chumash based and "issue" based lessons. For example, my book
(we are IKKAR Publishing) IN THE BEGINNING presents parsha hashavua and
pulls out one ethical lesson from each parsha tied to a movie. e.g. - Why
didn't Hashem repeat Sarah's full remarks over to Avraham is tied with a
clip from "Liar, Liar" and a discussion about lying, shalom bayis, etc.
Steve's TEENS AND TRUST curriculum book deals with sibling rivalry,
interpersonal communication, jealousy with connections between text, video
and ethical lessons. If you are interested you can get more information
about our books from us at
ikkarpub@aol.com or telephone 973-912-9233.
Fran Hirschman</HTML>
