Prejudices and Discrimination: NFTY Learns the Hard Way
By Jessica Goodman, NFTY NAR President, 5767-5768
Ariel Glantz, NFTY NAR SAVP, 5767-5768
Touchstone Text:
“The evil eye, the evil desire and hatred of his fellow creatures put a man out of the world.” Rabbi Joshua
Goals:
· To teach PPs about different prejudices in the present and past.
· To introduce PPs to the troubles in our world that are caused by undeserved hatred and prejudices.
· To teach PPs that acceptance and understanding are part of NFTY and the Reform Movement’s teachings, ideals and beliefs.
Objectives:
· Through “fixed” Color War type games, PPs will experience what it feels like to be discriminated against and what it feels like to discriminate.
· Through discussion, PPs will learn when in history prejudice was present (specifically the Holocaust and the genocide in Darfur) and will learn why it is important NOT to be judgmental as a Jew.
· Through participating in acts of Tikkun Olam for the genocide in Darfur and for Holocaust memorial projects, PPs will help the world in which they live in.
· Through Tug of War, PPs will be able to release the anger they felt towards prejudices that was built up over the course of the program.
Materials:
· Name Tags with colors and numbers pre-labeled, PPs should be divided up into 4 teams by 4 different colors and designated a number 1-3
· Activity Stations
· Whistles for referees and PLs
· 2 Spoons per universe (of different sizes, 1 for favored, 1 for underdog)
· 2 ping pong balls per universe
· Paper
· Writing utensils
· Social Action Activities
· Markers/ Writing Utensils
· Letter Writing template projected onto a screen (Appendix A)
· Lap Top/ Projector
· Plain Paper (lined or unlined)
· Darfur Handout (Appendix B) and Stove Handout (Appendix C) printed double sided, 1 copy per 3 people
· Readings (Appendix D) should be given to readers the night before in order for them to practice and become familiar with reading
· Extremely long rope for Tug of War
· iPod with B’Tzelem Eloheim by Dan Nichols (Use of sound system or iPod speakers in large program space)
People Needed:
· Program Leaders (1 in each Universe)
· Referees/ Group Leaders
· Program Participants
Space Needed:
· Large space allowing for three separate rotations (per universe)
Time Table:
00:00-00:05 Introduction/ Division of PPs
00:05-00:15 Human Knot
00:15-00:25 First Activity Rotation
00:25-00:35 Second Activity Rotation
00:35-00:45 Third Activity Rotation
00:45-00:57 Discussion Groups
00:57-01:05 Readings
01:05-01:25“Action” in Social Action
01:25-01:30 NFTY-NAR Tug-of-War/ Closing
Detailed Procedure:
00:00-00:05 Introduction/ Division of PPs
Beforehand, numbers and colors will be designated on PPs’ nametags. GLs are at door and hand them out as PPs come in- RANDOMLY! Once all PPs are inside program space 1, PL introduces program:
“Welcome to the Color War! Today you will participate in some activities that will challenge you physically and mentally. You have each been given a sticker. If you have been given (two) stickers, please head, when I say so, to (program space 2, if using two universes) quickly! If you have been given (two) stickers, please stay seated and get ready for the craziest Color War you’ve ever participated in! Go!”
Referees will be waiting in Universe 2 (program space 2) with all stations set up. As soon as Universe 2 leaves, GLs for Universe 1 will move to their respective stations around the Beit Am that were set up prior to Program.
PL in each universe instructs PPs to get together with colors to see who is on their team. GLs instruct PPs to designate one person per number to keep score of the points their subteam is awarded. They then get ready to participate in the Human Knot with their entire team.
00:05-00:15 Human Knot
Activity 1: Human Knot
GL’s tell each group to form a tight circle and grab hands with someone else across the circle. Each hand to a different person. It cannot be the person next to you. They must get out of the knot without ever letting go. The team done first wins. If that team is not the Favored team, Referees should make a reason for them to start over (ex: Ali and Rob let go before. You guys need to start again.) Referees should only watch the other team, closely, for any cheating. Winning team is awarded 100 points. Losing team must deduct 50 points. Teams (two colors) 1 are told to begin at the word-song game. Teams (two colors) 2 are told to begin at the ping-pong ball station. Teams (two colors) 3 are told to begin at the 3-legged race station.
PL will blow a whistle loudly, indicating that it is time for PPs to rotate stations. GLs will ask PPs to rotate to the next station.
00:15-00:25 First Activity Rotation
Activity 2: Word-Song Game
Referees will ask who is on what team and will ask them to sit with their team. Referee will pick a word (love, rose, yellow, rain, run, crazy) and give teams 1 minute to come up with a list of songs that have that word in them. Favored team (Universe 1- certain color, Universe 2- a different color) will not be reprimanded if caught looking at iPod for answers, etc. Favored team will get to read their list aloud first and referee will give them extra points for no reason (i.e.: good behavior). If the other team hears any song titles they have written down, they must cross it off. After both teams read songs aloud, they add up songs left on list for score. Favored team should always win. For each winning round, the winning team is awarded 100 points. For each losing round, losing team must deduct 50 points from score. Repeat game until time is up.
NOTE TO GL: Favored team should get points for made up reasons. Adlib and give points whenever you deem necessary. There is no limit on how much you can favor a team.
Activity 3: Ping-pong Ball on Spoon Relay
Teams get into single file lines behind teammates. First in line has spoon in mouth with a ping-pong ball balanced on it. He/she must get across to other side and back without dropping ping-pong ball. If dropped, PP has to go back to the beginning and start again. Once back, PP hands spoon to next PP in line, still keeping ball on spoon. Favored team is given larger spoons (ie: metal soup spoons) while underdog team is given smaller spoons (ie: wooden spoons). Again, favored team gets away with dropping ball, etc. Other team gets caught with everything. Do until time is up. Repeat if time permits. Winning team of activity is awarded 100 points. Losing team must deduct 50 points.
Activity 4: 3-Legged Race
Teams get into double lines behind teammates. Teammates’ legs are tied together above the ankle. If odd number – that PP will switch off with another teammate in the next round. First partners of each team go to the end and back, then next in line go. Referees, once again, help out the Favored team – help them up if they fall, let them cheat. Repeat until time is up – switch partners if odd number of PP’s on team. Winning team is awarded 100 points. Losing team must deduct 50 points.
After Activity time is up, PL will blow a whistle loudly, indicating that it is time for PPs to rotate stations. GLs will ask PPs to rotate to the next station.
00:25-00:35 Second Activity Rotation
After Activity time is up, PL will blow a whistle loudly, indicating that it is time for PPs to rotate stations. GLs will ask PPs to rotate to the next station.
00:35-00:45 Third Activity Rotation
After Activity time is up, PL will blow a whistle loudly, indicating that it is time for PPs to rotate stations. GLs will ask PPs to rotate to the next station.
00:45-00:57 Discussion Groups
PL blows whistle for the last time and Teams are told to stop whatever they are doing and sit down with their sub team and the sub team they have been fighting against. Referees now turn into discussion leaders. Groups should discuss discrimination and reasons for Jews to be especially aware and active. Let discussion go where it may. Some questions you may use as guidelines:
1. Did anyone feel discriminated against or favored during the activity?
2. How did it feel to be treated differently because of a silly color?
3. What events in history and/or current times resulted from such simple discrimination?
4. Do we, as Jews, have an obligation to help those being discriminated again? Why or why not?
5. Although in our past, Jews have been persecuted and discriminated against, does this give us the right to be prejudice towards others?
6. The Torah teaches, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Does this affect the way you treat other people, consciously or subconsciously?
Once PL gives the signal to wrap up conversations, GLs instruct PPs to head back to the program space 1 and sit quietly on the floor once the get there.
00:57-01:05 Readings
Once PPs are quietly sitting on the floor, PL will begin this portion by reading the first “reading” in Appendix D. GLs around the room will stand up and read their “readings” that were assigned previously. Lights should be dimmed during this portion to set the mood.
After readings, lights will be turned on and PL will stand up and say, “The passages you just heard are all real things people have said or written in response to injustice in our world. You will all now take part in combating injustices by writing letters to Senators/ Representatives regarding the Genocide in Darfur. You can also write announcements/ posters that you intend to publish in your school, synagogue or home community. Please break up into groups of 10 to participate in this.”
01:05-01:25“Action” in Social Action
In each group of 10 there should be one or two GLs. They then distribute Appendix B to all PPs. Then read about Darfur Cookstoves (Appendix C). GL’s ask PP’s to write down ideas they have to inform their peers and synagogues about the cook stoves (make temple announcements, create temple forums, etc). PP’s can also write letters that will be projected onto wall (Appendix A). GLs can use the following guiding discussion questions:
1. What does the genocide in Darfur have to do with the Holocaust?
2. How are we as Jews responsible to help?
3. What can we do to fight oppression and discrimination?
*Note to GLs: Do not force discussion, if there is no need for one. If PPs are discussing amongst themselves, there is no need to divert them away from that.
01:25-01:30 NFTY Tug-of-War/ Closing
PL and GLs assemble everyone back together. PL will say, “Thank you for participating with us in this wild Color War and Action Activity! In order for you to release your anger against prejudices and oppressions around the world, we have devised a little game of TUG OF WAR! If you were discriminated against, please to go the left side of the room. If you were favored, please go to the right side of the room!” Tug-of-War will commence and at this moment, “B’tzelem Eloheim” by Dan Nichols will be played on the sound system or iPod speakers. Referees will judge fairly.
Appendix A
Dear Representative/Senator ____________,
As you may know, since February 2003, the Sudanese government has orchestrated a campaign of racial extermination against the ethnically-distinct black African population of Darfur. The Sudanese military and the Janjaweed militias it arms have killed as many as 400,000 black Darfurians. They have bombed and burned villages throughout the region, displacing almost 3.5 million people who now cling to life as homeless refugees. They have raped and assaulted countless women, including pregnant mothers who have subsequently lost their unborn babies. They have tortured and killed men, often in front of their families.
The violence is far from over: thousands of people continue to die each month in Darfur.
We, the undersigned members of your constituency, stand with the 80 percent of Americans who believe the U.S. should be doing more to end the genocide in Darfur. We stand with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said that, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” And we stand with President George W. Bush, who declared in his Second Inaugural Address that, “All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.”
Our top priority is protecting the lives of innocent civilians. Darfurians are religious leaders, community leaders, businesspeople, laborers, teachers, and students—just like those of us who have signed this letter and others like it all across America this summer. We urge you to take decisive action to ensure their safety, health and freedom by:
1. Approving adequate funding for Darfur in the Fiscal Year 2007 funding process.
2. Passing the strongest possible version of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act
3. Retaining the Clinton Amendment (amendment 4361) within the Defense Authorization bill (S. 2766).
As you can see, there are concrete actions you can take to help protect civilians from murder, rape and displacement. We encourage you to take them.
Sincerely,
_____________________________
Printed Name: _____________________________
Organization: NFTY
Address: _____________________________
_____________________________
Appendix B
Genocide in Darfur: Say What?!
Darfur has been embroiled in a deadly conflict for over three years. At least 400,000 people have been killed; more than 2 million innocent civilians have been forced to flee their homes and now live in displaced-persons camps in Sudan or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad; and more than 3.5 million men, women, and children are completely reliant on international aid for survival. Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter.
Since early 2003, Sudanese armed forces and Sudanese government-backed militia known as “Janjaweed” have been fighting two rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The stated political aim of the rebels has been to compel the government of Sudan to address underdevelopment and the political marginalization of the region. In response, the Sudanese government’s regular armed forces and the Janjaweed – largely composed of fighters of Arab nomadic background – have targeted civilian populations and ethnic group from which the rebels primarily draw their support – the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.
The Bush Administration has recognized these atrocities – carried out against civilians primarily by the government of Sudan and its allied Janjaweed militias – as genocide. António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has described the situation in Sudan and Chad as “the largest and most complex humanitarian problem on the globe.” The Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias are responsible for the burning and destruction of hundreds of rural villages, the killing of tens of thousands of people and rape and assault of thousands of women and girls.
With much international pressure, the Darfur Peace Agreement was brokered in May 2006 between the government of Sudan and one faction of Darfur rebels. However, deadlines have been ignored and the violence has escalated, with in-fighting among the various rebel groups and factions dramatically increasing and adding a new layer of complexity to the conflict. This violence has made it dangerous, if not impossible, for most of the millions of displaced persons to return to their homes. Humanitarian aid agencies face growing obstacles to bringing widespread relief. In August 2006, the UN's top humanitarian official Jan Egeland stated that the situation in Darfur is "going from real bad to catastrophic." Indeed, the violence in Darfur rages on with government-backed militias still attacking civilian populations with impunity.
On July 30, 2004, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1556 demanding that the government of Sudan disarm the Janjaweed. This same demand is also an important part of the Darfur Peace Agreement signed in May of 2006. On August 31, 2006, the Security Council took the further step of authorizing a strong UN peacekeeping force for Darfur by passing resolution 1706. Despite these actions, the Janjaweed are still active and free to commit the same genocidal crimes against civilians in Darfur with the aid of the Sudanese government.