Due to the Covid-19 situation right now, we’re postponing the deadline of the New Grant Giveaway For Educators to June 4th.

You can apply for a grant by teaching your students (online or in person) at least one lesson about the Soviet Jewry Struggle for Freedom, using the many free lessons from The Refusenik Project website or create your own.

Then take a photo or video of the lesson, write a short essay about it, and apply for a chance to win grants of $1,000, $700 or $300.

The checks will be issued by Jewish LearningWorks.
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SIGN UP or read more about how to apply:
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ive online broadcast of the drawing:
Sunday, June 7th 2020, 10am EST

on our facebook page Soviet Jewry Struggle
We’ve added a category for lessons which can be taught online, press HERE to view them all, or scroll down for our highlighted suggestions of how to switch the prepared lessons on the Refusenik Project to online lessons that can win you a grant:
BRAINWASHING & FAKE NEWS – SLIDESHOW & DISCUSSION
Have all your students on a video conference call, and send them a link to the slideshow, which they should watch in a full screen.
You can print out the suggested discussion points for each slide.
Take a picture of the screen with the students, and tell us how did they respond? Did you add new discussion points?
www.refusenikproject.org/lesson_plans/identify-brainwash/FILM VIEWING (online) & DISCUSSION – OPERATION WEDDING DOCUMENTARY
Show the one-hour long award winning documentary film Operation Wedding in a private link (Covid-19 discount cost: $30 for class).
The students will read a one page description about the situation of Jews in the USSR in the 60’s, then watch the film.
After viewing, you can start a discussion with your students. It can be with live video, or in a group chat. You have suggested discussion points by the filmmaker in the lesson plan. Go back into those moments in the film and talk about them.
www.refusenikproject.org/lesson_plans/operation-wedding/

SOCIAL ACTION (READ & DISCUSS)
1. Read the very important and powerful excerpts from Elie Wiesel’s book “The Jews of Silence” with the class.
2. Discuss his claim that “The Jewish brain has killed the Jewish heart”
What causes (Jewish and not) exist today about which we are silent?
What excuses do we tell ourselves in order to justify our inaction?
Was there ever a time when you were able to overcome this voice, and did something that made a difference (to an individual or a group)?
www.refusenikproject.org/lesson_plans/social-action

SING IN HEBREW, SONGS SUNG BY CAPTIVE SOVIET JEWS AND BY FREE JEWS IN ISRAEL
🎵 A music lesson: sing in Hebrew, and discuss the lyrics meanings and source.
(The lesson have the words in English, Transliteration and in Hebrew. )One was sung by Soviet Jews, trapped in the USSR: “Blue and White are the colors of my land, for now and ever after”.
The other was sung by Jews in Israel:
“Won’t you ask after, O Zion, the weal of your captive?”
Talk about the meaning of the songs, learn how to sing at least one of them, have your students sing it in a conference video call, and take a video of the screen with your phone to apply.
www.refusenikproject.org/lesson_plans/hebrew-songs/

Nick Greene of Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue, who applied the Grant Giveaway before the Corona Virus came to the USA, told us about the students reaction: “This lesson was perfect for our students. As 8th and 9th graders, music is an integral part of their lives. For them, culture is indeed the driving force for the world around them, and music can be considered their most important cultural aspect. We learned the song “Kachol Ve-Lavan” and sang it as a class. Some students are more advanced than others in Hebrew, but none are fluent speakers, so we spent time going over all of the words and dissecting the importance of each line. By the end, each student felt that they had a connection to the lyrics and in turn, the Refuseniks whom championed them. It takes a lot for thirteen and fourteen year olds to be vulnerable, and singing a song they aren’t familiar with is certainly a vulnerable situation. The fact that they sang with gusto and pride proves that they connected to the lesson and of course their Refusenik brothers and sisters.”

Watch a video of Nick’s students singing: https://youtu.be/UjRxZWHbuw8
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