Goals:

• The participants will understand the meaning of the longing for Zion.
• The participants will present different customs symbolizing yearning and longing.
• The participants will develop a custom of their own, representing longing and yearning for Jerusalem.

Activity order:

1. Story representing the longing of the Jewish people for Jerusalem for many years.
2. Learning about customs expressing the longing for Jerusalem through plays.
3. Discussion.
4. Movie – interview with prisoners.
5. Conclusion and creation of a personal custom for each group.

We will tell the participants about a lover longing for his beloved one. He writes her letters, sings songs, remembers moments they spent together and looks at her pictures.

After the story we will ask the participants what they think about this person? What would they have done if they would have to face the same situation?

We will explain the moral of this story – the people of Israel and Jerusalem. The people of Israel are like a lover longing for many years to return to Jerusalem. During those years, the people of Israel took upon themselves many customs, in order not to forget their loved one.

We will now talk about the different customs.

We will divide the participants into small groups. Each group will be given a story about a custom related to Jerusalem and they will present it to the other groups.

At the end of each presentation the other groups will have to find out:

1. What is the event?
2. Where does the story take place?
3. What do the characters think about the custom?

Customs: break a glass under the Chuppa, pray towards East, leave a part of the wall in a new house, without paint, finish the Pessach Hagada with the song “Next year in rebuilt Jerusalem”, Tisha Be’Av, Sigd holiday.

After having learned and understood the existing customs, let’s have a look at our lives today.

We will choose one participant out of each group and he/she will tell us, when, in his daily life, he feels this longing for Jerusalem.

We will then ask the participants:

• Do we feel that we are missing something?
• Do we feel a bond to Jerusalem?
• Would we like to be more connected to Jerusalem?
• What are we willing to give up in order to be able to get to Jerusalem?

The participants will watch a movie – interviews with prisoners

At the end of the movie we will explain that all the characters we have seen, are people who wanted to immigrate to Eretz Israel or to protect it. What helped them overcome, was the idea that they were in jail because of an ideology, important to them, and their belief that a day would come and they would fulfill their purpose. It was the hope and faith that they would return to Jerusalem that gave them the strength and hope.

Looking at our lives today, we can see that some customs have become part of our daily life and some, we don’t know at all. 

We are all Jews and we are all connected to Jerusalem, love it and miss seeing it flourish. Now we will try to think of a custom that we can create in our group so it should connect us to Jerusalem, in the same way a lover misses his loved one.

You can bring sheets of paper, markers, paints, etc. and actually write down ‘statutes”. What are the rules of the custom, when is it celebrated, what are the tasks of each group member etc. The final text is then put on the walls of the class and the children wish each other “Next Year in rebuilt Jerusalem”.