Israel education has become a hot topic in the Jewish world in the last few years. Beginning with movements like IfNotNow's "#YouNeverToldMe", Jewish educators have been struggling to balance fair education about Israel with varying perspectives while also maintaining its Zionist character. While many educators have concluded that this balance is impossible to achieve, the voices of the teens who are often the audience of such education are seldom included in the conversation.
When asked, several teens involved in Jewish youth groups and other Jewish communities identified several successes of their experiences with Israel education today. They pointed to the diversity of educational topics, as one teen from Minneapolis, MN noted. "It engages people across the education spectrum and teaches about different aspects of Israel." Two others highlighted the "amount of programming available for teens that are interested in broadening their knowledge" as well as the diversity of "different materials and resources being used to appeal to different learning types and knowledge levels."
Another proven success was in the several existing resources for teens looking to learn about Israel. One teen from the Boston area highlighted the work of StandWithUs: "From their funding and intuitive programs for beginners they have brought so many needed youngsters into the fold." This phenomena of Jewish organizations working hard to bring varied Israel education to teens was emphasized in a study done by The Jewish Education Project, which notes that "higher-connected teens [to their Jewish identity] were identified as having multiple connections to Jewish organizations" and that "there is a direct relationship between their levels of connection to Jewish life, the Jewish community, and their emotional connection to Israel." In short, Jewish organizations are, in fact, fostering a value of Israel into their teens.
However, these successes do not come without their caveats. While there are organizations which adjust their curriculum to the knowledge of the learner, this can often lead to a huge gap in high- and low-educated teens. One teen in particular noted that "Israel education outreach is normally directed towards teens that know a lot about Israel... we need programs that actually teach people about Israel for baseline teens that wouldn’t feel ready for a more intense program. This is I think a big factor as to why so many kids don’t know basic terms like BDS or Oslo Accords." While teens who are well-versed in Israeli history attain coveted internships and opportunities to study further, some teens lack the opportunities or knowledge to reach these resources, thus leaving them in a view of Israel that hardly spans beyond Golden Boy and the Iron Dome.
The politicization of Israel education was also noted by two of these teens, who expressed their frustration with the apparent inability "to educate and learn about Israel in the absence of politics" particularly for advanced learners.
But all hope is not lost. There are ups and downs, but teens are also identifying ways that they can make a difference. One teen we interviewed was excited about creating "engaging activities and lessons help people delve into Israel" when they are in positions of leadership. Teens recognize the value of meeting their peers where they are: one of the noted highlights was "getting to work directly with my peers to make sure that I am creating programming that is accessible, interesting, and meaningful to them." And as for how they do this? Another interviewee went more in-depth: she created a forum for her peers with "discussion questions all through out and people were able to ask questions to clear up confusion." For example, she explained, "if I use the word coalition in a sentence, I need to explain exactly what a coalition is to people because when people hear words they don’t know, they tune out."
The silver lining is that teens seem to want to work on Israel education in order to improve it. When asked, one teen summed up her hope for what Israel education could look like: "acknowledge the difficulty and confusion, move forward with challenging topics, and admit when you are not sure."
Israel education is a roller coaster of ups and downs, successes and struggles, and hopes for the future, but it seems like at least some teens are along for the ride.