Goals:

• The participants will learn the concept and meaning of “Prisoners of Zion”.
• The participants will be exposed to a number of the ways that Soviet Union Jewry fought in order to be allowed to make Aliyah.
• The participants will consider the concept of freedom in their lives through the stories of the Prisoners of Zion.

The activity order:

1. Acquaintance with Communist Russia
2. Game- What would I be prepared to do for…
3. Learning about the concept of Prisoners of Zion
4. Raising awareness of the activities of the Prisoners of Zion
5. Clip- The Stories of Prisoners of Zion
6. Conclusion

Each participant will answer the question of where s/he would like to fly to right now, if all options were open before him/her.

Afterwards, the group leader will give one of the participants a card with a description of communist Russia on it.

Prisoners of Zion were imprisoned in the country, forced to stay, unable to reach the destination that they so desired to reach- the Land of Israel. 

When Prisoners of Zion tried to escape from the long arms of the authorities, they were captured and imprisoned- often numerous times. This kind of situation created a clashing of values. The country was a jail for its citizens and the basic principle of freedom of movement, that most western countries adhere to, was breached.

The activity leader will put things up for sale- each time something else (an object or a value). 

The participants can buy things in exchange for something that they are prepared to do for it (for example: to give up candy for two weeks, to get 100 in the next exam, to sing a song in front of the group, to not use their phone, and any other unique things they can think of).

The leader should encourage the participants to suggest original and varied ideas. 

The participant who will suggest the most original idea will win the object.

At the end of the sale, the leader will ask the participants who has heard of “Prisoners of Zion”.

He will then read a description of “Prisoners of Zion”: (arrange the wording on a card) A Prisoner of Zion is a person who was imprisoned or exiled due to acting on behalf of Zionism, in a country where such activity is forbidden. The term has its source in the words of Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi in his poem “Zion, will you not ask after the welfare of your prisoners?”

Conclusion:

Prisoners of Zion displayed loyalty to the Jewish people and to the Land of Israel and payed a heavy price for this. Even requesting permission to make Aliyah to Israel subjected them to harassment. They were considered traitors, were fired from work and paid a heavy price, family-wise too. What are we prepared to do for the things that are important for us in life, and what are the prices that we are prepared to pay for them?

The activity leader should choose two volunteers. One of them should write on a piece of paper what their worst chore at home is and why. The second should read the first person’s paper and say the exact opposite of what is written there.

For example: One writes that his worst chore at home is washing dishes because 

• He does not like the feel of the wet dishwashing scotch on his hands.
• He doesn’t like the dirt in the sink
• The sound of the clatter of dirty dishes  gets on his nerves

The second participant will then tell the rest of the participants that he loves washing dishes because:

• He loves the feel of the dish-washing scotch on his hands 
• He loves cleaning the dirt left in the sink
• He loves the sound of the clatter of dirty dishes

The activity leader will tell the participants that the Soviet Union’s government broadcast to the world that Jewish people lived in excellent conditions in their state, and that they have no desire to leave for the land of Israel. Due to the strength and size of the government, its voice was heard whereas the voice of the Jewish people living in the State was swallowed up by it. 

But, the Jewish people in the Soviet Union wanted, more than anything, to immigrate to the land of Israel. They tried all kinds of varied ways, via different channels, to let the world know about their distress.

The activity leader should place  3 signs on the floor that say the following:

• Letter of the 18 Families
• Operation Wedding
• Avital Sharansky’s Struggle

The activity leader should scatter notes with facts written on them among the participants and the participants will need to guess which headline belongs to which fact and match them up. At the end of the activity, the activity leader will help them make the correct matches.
Finally, the leader will give a card to three volunteers who will read the story of the event to everyone. 

The leader will summarize: The Prisoners of Zion travelled a long, long road between the oppression that they experienced under the Soviet Union’s government, via their long, unwavering struggle for the right to emigrate to the land of Israel, until their success in doing so. 

It is important to point out that at this point, we concentrated on the Prisoners of Zion from the Soviet Union and they are the most well-known, but there were Prisoners of Zion in many other places in the world and we will talk about them in the next part of the activity.

The participants will watch the clip “Stories of Prisoners of Zion”.

It is possible to use questions to process the clip, after watching.

Possible questions:

• A question that you’d like to ask one of the characters
• What can the wide range of places that the characters in the clip came from teach us?
• Which character touched you the most and why?
• What is the most meaningful thing that you learned from the clip?

The leader will scatter quotes from the prisoners in the clip on the floor . We will ask each participant to choose the sentence that represents the word “freedom” the best for him and to explain why he chose what he did.