8th Grade Leadership Israel/Team Building Program

You are going on a 7 day Leadership trip to Israel to learn about different types of Israeli and Jewish Leaders. You must decide which Leaders your group will learn about each day.

THE RULES

-You must choose one leader to study each week day – for a total of six leaders.

-For Shabbat you must choose a location that you think would be the best place to reflect upon your week and process everything you learnt.

-Your group must agree on everything as to which leaders you feel are more important to study and why and do it as a team,

-Attached is a guide of the different leaders for you to pick from.

-After each group has picked their leaders and why, we will regroup to discuss why each group picked the leaders they did. Remember, there is no right or wrong answer.

Leaders

  1. David Ben Gurion - 1st Prime Minister of Israel from November 1955 – June 1963. Leader of the Zionist Movement, lead Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Leadership quality – Led by example, After his retirement Ben Gurion believed the Negev offered opportunity for the Jews to flourish so he settled in kibbutz Sde Boker and insisted on being buried there as well.
  2. Theodor Herzl–Known as the father of Zionism. He advocated for the Jews to have a home land, although he did not live to see Israel become a state. He is buried in MountHerzl in Jerusalem, which has become a military cemetery as well as a place for 3 prime ministers and many others to be buried. Leadership quality – vision.His vision is the reason we have the state of Israel today.
  3. Yitzhak Rabin –5th Prime Minister of Israel from June 1974- April 1977 and then again July 1992 – November 1995. He was the one who ordered the successful Operation Entebbe. Played a role in the signing of the Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian National Authority and granted it partial control over parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Leadership quality –Assertiveness, Rabin had the ability to clearly state what he expected so that there will be no misunderstandings and so other could follow.
  4. Ilan Ramon – The first and only Israeli Astronaut. Although not a religious Jew, he requested Kosher food, sought to find out when Shabbat started in space, brought a Kiddush cup as well as a small Torah from Yad Vashem with him onto the shuttle. Leadership quality –inclusive. Ilan took it upon himself to represent and include the entire state of Israel and the Jewish people when he went up to space.
  5. Omri Casspi – first Israeli to play for the NBA. Played for Maccabi Tel Aviv. In a game against the Memphis Grizzlies, he shook hands with Hamed Haddadi, the first Iranian in the NBA. Leadership quality –openness. Omri was able to suspend judgment of how he personally feels about involving sports and basketball, met with the representative of a country that declares that need to wipe Israel off the map.
  6. Menachem Begin – 6th Prime Minister of Israel from June 1977 – October 1983. He was the prime minister that signed the peace treaty with Egypt in 1979. He along with Ariel Sharon founded the Likud Party. Leadership quality –humility. He used to ride public transportation to get to work as Prime Minster and refused to be buried at Har Herzl where all other Former Prime Ministers are buried.
  7. Gal Fridman – He is the only Israeli athlete to win two Olympic medals, and the first (and only, thus far) Olympic gold medalist in Israeli history. Fittingly, his first name, Gal, means "wave" in Hebrew. Leadership quality –fairness. In all his competitions his oppents had much regard to him and the fair way in which he competed.
  8. Hannah Shenesh– A Zionist from Hungary. She emigrated to then-Palestine and joined the Haganah, the group that laid the foundation for the IDF. She was trained as a paratrooper and during WWII parachuted into Yugoslavia in a plan to help those in Hungary. She was caught and tortured, but never gave up any information. Eventually she was executed. Leadership quality –Integrity as she was the same on the outside and on the inside. She can always be trusted because she never veered from her inner values.
  9. Golda Meir – 4th Prime Minister of Israel from March 1969 – June 1974 and only woman to ever serve in that position.She was one of the 24 people to sign the Israeli declaration of independence on May 14, 1948. She served as Prime Minister during the Munich Olympics as well as the Yom Kippur War. Though was not asked to do so, took responsibility for the Yom Kippur war and resigned as Prime Minister once it ended. Leadership quality –Magnanimity, meaning someone whospreads the fame and takes the blame and it is a hallmark of effective leadership.
  10. Naomi Shemer – Some of her most famous songs include Lu Yehi, Yerushalayim Shel Zahav which was written before the Six Day War in 1967 and Al Kol Eileh. Leadership quality –Creativity. Naomi was a song writer, singer, composer and was taented in so many other ways and used her talent and creativity to become known as the first lady of Israeli song.
  11. Moshe Montefiore – was a Jew born in Italy and lived in Britain. He was a philanthropist who devoted himself to alleviating the distress of Jews all over the world. He built Mishkenot Sha’ananim the first houses outside the OldCitywalls and even paid people to live there so they could get away from the unsanitized conditions of living at the time within the old city walls. Leadership quality –Dedication. Moshe spent much time, energy and large amounts of money to accomplish the task.
  12. Yonatan Netanyahu –Commander of Operation Entebbe and the only person killed during the operation that saved 105 lives. Leadership quality –Caring for everyone, even people you don’t know. Yoni set out on a mission to save not citizens of his country but Jews from other countries because he believed he was connected to them even without ever meeting them.

Shabbatot

  1. Shabbat in Tzfat – The mystical city of Tzfat is the birth place of the Kabbalah, and was the home of Rabbi Joseph Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch. Spend Shabbat in the spiritual citywith many historic synagogues.
  2. Shabbat in Jerusalem – Spend Shabbat in the capital of the state of Israel, the holist city in the world, pray facing the old city walls and enjoy the quiet, car-less streets.
  3. Shabbat in Tel Aviv – Tel Aviv, the first Hebrew city, has its own uniqueness when it comes to spirituality. See hundrends gather on the beach to start off Shabbat while watching the sun set.
  4. Shabbat down South – Spend Shabbat in the desert in the South. Pray under the stars and take time to reflect while away from the busyness of a city.