Trailers as Classrooms in NYC

Article: As neighborhoods in New York explode with population growth, the NYC public school system doesn't have enough classrooms, especially for the younger grades. So they have been housing over 7000 students in trailers, half of which are in Queens (where my husband is from!). The trailers sit outside regular school buildings and serve as overflow classrooms. Mayor Bloomberg vowed to get rid of them by 2012 but they still remain. One handyman who works for the city says he has chased possums, mice, turtles and raccoons from them. Other problems with the trailers: the electricity doesn't always work; the heat breaks down in winter and it is too humid in spring. The walls make it hard to hang things on. To go to the bathroom, or for gym, art or lunch, the kids have to put on kids in all kinds of weather (rain, snow, etc.) and trudge to the main school building. The trailers are literally falling apart and the city must come up with solutions. What solutions can you think of? Click here for pictures.

What You Can Do With a Harmonica

Today I have finally caught the cold that all 3 kids have had on and off for the last 2 weeks. So the current event today will be a puffy one. Have your kids ever tried to play the harmonica? If so, they may be excited to see what you can do with a harmonica if you have extraordinary perseverance at practicing. Click on this VIDEO to hear and listen til the end!

Potatoes for India

Article: India is a country of extremes: terrible poverty and great wealth. Millions do not have enough to eat, even though India grows enough food. The problem isn't one of poor farming but poor distribution. For instance, India's biggest crop is the potato; India is the second largest producer of potatoes in the world (after China)! The problem is that potatoes are harvested in the winter. Local farmers sell what they can and the excess are sold to distributors, who store them in cold-storage warehouses and sell them back to the local population at elevated prices later on in the year. What is a solution? 

One solution is extending the shelf life of potatoes in the hands of local farmers. Israel is doing research to help solve this problem. Perhaps Israeli solar energy technology could help: farmers could build small storerooms with solar panels to generate electricity for refrigerators and keep the storage rooms cold. A scientist in India is looking for ways to collaborate with Israel to find a solution. 

What solutions do you have? 

New Attempt to Boycott Israeli Architects

Article: Each country has a national association of architects. These associations come together into a united body, called the International Union of Architects (IUA). The IUA was founded in 1948 as a place where architects of the world could come together free from discrimination. This past week, RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects (UK), narrowly passed a motion calling for Israeli architects to the suspended from IUA. It claims that Israeli architects contribute to settlement building in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and therefore should be excluded from the international body of architects. This move is part of the BDS movement's goals of isolating Israel culturally, politically and economically.

Discussion Questions

• Define these terms: architects, suspend, discrimination, motion, BDS
• How is this an example of discrimination? 
• Kids: pretend you are an Israeli architect. Make the argument for why architects and artists should be above politics and not let politics decide what they can or cannot do. 
• How would you feel if you were an architect in Israel right now? 

Teenager sacrifices his life to save his friend

Article: A 16 year old from Northern California, Mateus Moore, and his girlfriend, Mickayla, were going to a dance party at their high school this weekend when they were struck by a train. The train was not moving fast but somehow neither Mateus or Mickayla heard the train nor felt its vibrations. Mickayla, who is in the hospital with critical injuries, told her family that she and Mateus were walking across the tracks to get a snack at the time of the accident. They decided to walk across the tracks instead of taking an underground pedestrian tunnel because they felt the underground tunnel was too dark and potentially dangerous. As the train came, Mateus shoved his girlfriend out of the direct path of the train and in so doing, sacrificed his own life.

Rescued Baby Reunited with Rescuer

Article: 26 years ago, there was a terrible car accident when a drunk driver plowed into a car with a mother and infant. The car was demolished. A Good Samaritan named Shelley (ask kids what this means) pulled over to help. As she went to check on the mother in the driver's seat, she heard a baby crying. She managed to get the baby out of the car seat. Shelley was worried the car was about to explode. The mother kept crying for her baby and falling in and out of consciousness. Shelley held the baby, Nicole, until paramedics arrived. She went with them to the hospital in the ambulance. A few days later, Shelley called the hospital to check in on them. She heard that baby had been paralyzed from the neck down. Shelley assumed it was her fault, for moving the baby. 26 years later, she happened to see a baby video of Nicole on the Internet and recognized the baby she had once rescued. She contacted the family and found out that Nicole had been paralyzed as a result of the accident, not Shelley's actions. She has since become close with the family.

Obituary: Israeli soldier Meir Har-Tzion

Article: Meir Har-Tzion passed way this weekend. He was one of Israel's most fearless soldiers. He wrote books, studied by Israeli soldiers, about always completing your mission no matter what, how to fight alone at night, retaliation, never abandoning a fellow soldier, and loving the Land of Israel. As a soldier, he is legendary for his bravery. He was raised on a kibbutz and loved to hike. In the 1950s, he went out to hike into Syria with his sister, Shoshana. They were kidnapped by Bedouin and jailed in Syria for weeks. Also in the 1950s, he hiked by himself into Jordan to visit the ancient city of Petra. In 1954, his sister Shoshana and a friend were killed while hiking in the Judean desert. Har-Tzion left the army, set out with some friends and weapons, snuck into Jordan, caught 5 men from the tribe that had killed his sister, and killed 4 of the men, leaving the 5th alive to tell the story. He was jailed upon his return from Israel and suspended from the army. Later on, he was shot in the throat during a cross-border raid and saved by emergency field surgery. He fought in several of Israel's wars and died in old age, as one of Israel's most courageous warriors.

Discussion:

• What do you think of his actions as a soldier? 
• Which of the stories do you find most shocking? Why?

 

Unrest in Ukraine

Today's current event is great for having your kids peruse a map and find the different countries we are talking about.

Article: Today, the Crimean government declared independence from Ukraine, following a public referendum in which 96% of voters approved becoming part of Russia instead of Ukraine. Crimea is a peninsula in Southern Ukraine, which formerly was part of the Soviet Union. Accordingly, Crimea will now go by Moscow time (moving its clocks 2 hours forward), and has changed its currency to the Russian ruble. As a result, local banks closed and ATM machines ran out of money. Ukraine's president said he didn't support the referendum, which he thinks was orchestrated by Russia, and called for partial military intervention. In response, the Crimea government urged Ukrainians to join the Crimean army. 

Discussion: 

• What is happening in Ukraine right now is called civil unrest. Why? What do you think is going to happen next? 
• When you become a new country or join another country, why do you change you currency, etc.? What else will likely get changed in schools and education? 
• Why would Crimeans want to be part of Russia instead of Ukraine? 

 

Israel is Happy and Happy Purim!

Since this is my last posting before Purim begins (this Saturday night through Sunday), I want to wish you all Happy Purim! In celebration, today's blog post is very light...celebrating a fun video that shows how happy people in Tel Aviv are! If you have a fun Purim video to share, please post it in the comments below!

Happy Purim! Click here for the video.

Jewish Traveler Saved Because He Chose to Keep Shabbat

Article: This week, a Malaysian airplane has disappeared. Everyone is looking for what happened to it. Amazingly, one of the people supposed to be on the flight was saved because he chose to keep Shabbat. Andrew was supposed to travel from Boston to Sydney, Hong Kong, Beijing, Vietnam and back to Australia. He was supposed to attend a conference in China on Saturday. His travel agent, a religious Jew, suggested changing his flight from Saturday to Friday, so he wouldn't travel on Shabbat. When Andrew refused, the travel agent told Andrew to rebook the flight himself. Andrew reconsidered and decided to observe the Shabbat, traveling Friday morning instead of Saturday. He asked the travel agent on recommendations of where to go for Shabbat in Beijing and the travel agent recommended Chabad. If he hadn't made this change, Andrew would have been on the flight that disappeared into the mountains. When he thanked the travel agent, the travel agent said "God and Shabbat were your life savers," not me. Or as a famous quote goes, "More than the Jews keep the Sabbath, the Sabbath keeps the Jews."

Girls Not Getting Equal Education Globally

Article: A recent report issued by UNESCO (the UN) has found that the Arab world is among the most unequal places when it comes to gender and education. For instance, it found that 100 million women were unable to read a single sentence. In the Arab world, only 60% of girls go to school, mainly for cultural reasons. If a family is poor and can only afford to send some of the kids, they will likely send the boys only because the boys are expected to work and make money for the family. In other areas, like Syria, where there is civil war, parents are less likely to let girls go to school and maybe get hurt by strange men running around the neighborhood (to parents: sexual abuse). Because fewer girls go to school, fewer women become teachers, when the Arab world is desperate for more female teachers. Iran and Turkey are ahead of most of the other Middle Eastern countries in this regard. To help things progress, some countries are giving stipends to families for sending their girls to school or providing scholarships or recruiting teachers to rural areas.




 

Government Acts as a Bully

Article: Lots of people like to take vacations on cruise ships. Part of the joy is all you do is show up; the ship organizes where you stop, where you tour, even what you eat. Some Israeli tourists were recently on a cruise going around the Mediterranean. When the Norwegian cruise line stopped at the Port of Tunis to visit Tunisia, Israeli tourists were denied the right to disembark from the ship by the Tunisian government. While the other tourists toured the city of Tunis, the Israelis had to stay on board. The cruise line claims they didn't know this would happen; the other Jewish passengers--not Israeli citizens--did disembark and didn't know the Israelis were being denied, since no public announcement was made.

Discussion

• How do you think the Israeli passengers felt? 
• What could the cruise ship have done differently to stop this and send a message? The cruise ship could have told the Tunisian government that if Israelis (i.e., one nationality) was being denied, no one would disembark and they would sail away. 
• Why would this have made a difference to Tunisia? (loss of revenue and future business) 

Nigeria and Israel Sign Bilateral Cooperation Deal

Article: This past weekend, Nigeria (have kids find on map) and Israel signed a Joint Declaration for Bilateral Cooperation on Agriculture. The purpose of this agreement is to help Nigeria learn from Israel's research-based technology-driven agricultural practices. Nigeria hopes that this will make food more secure and sustainable in Nigeria, boost productivity at all levels of the agricultural chain and improve knowledge about agriculture. It plans to pass information directly onto Nigerian farmers and businesspeople so they can put it to good use. Israel benefits because Nigeria is a large market for Israeli private sector companies. The two countries have cooperated for several decades.

Discussions:

• Describe how this deal helps both Israel and Nigeria.
• How do two countries sign a treaty/cooperation agreement? Go through the process on how this comes about. 
• What are examples of things Israel can teach Nigeria? (Drip irrigation techniques, how to treat crops using natural methods (like tumeric); how to do cross-pollination of crops to naturally get rid of pests without using pesticides, etc.)

Update to Gold Coin Current Event: Stolen??

Article: Last week, we did a current event about a California couple finding gold coins. [Ask kids to recall the story.] Well, there's an update: It turns out that the couple may not be lucky after all. The buried gold coins, valued at $10 million, may actually have been stolen from the US Government (The Mint) in 1900! According to a local newspaper, two facts about the coins -- their literal value of $27,000 and that they are mostly uncirculated coins in perfect condition, match the two details from a gold heist in 1900 from the San Francisco Mint! In particular, there is one coin in the mix that is extremely rare because it is a $20 gold piece without the words "In God We Trust" on it. Such a coin only existed at the SF Mint and never left it until the robbery. If this is all true, the couple would likely get a "finder's fee," but would have to return the coins.

Questions:

• If this is true, who do the coins belong to and why? Why don't they belong to the couple? 
• What will the US Government have to prove to get the coins back? 
• Why does it matter that one of the coins is missing the words "In God We Trust?" 
• What does "uncirculated" mean? Why is this a significant fact?  

Obituary: Alice Herz-Sommer, died at age 110, oldest living Pianist and Holocaust survivor

First, before today's current event, I want to post the best question from our current event discussion last night (recap: what is the best question a judge could ask to determine whether the parents or girl are telling the truth). Best question was: To the parents, have you changed your alarm system? Please feel free to email me or comment below on what was the best question from your discussion!

Today's Article: Alice Herz-Sommer died last week at 110. She was the oldest living pianist and Holocaust survivor. Her incredible story, made into a documentary, just won a 2014 Oscar for Best Short Documentary, "The Lady in Number 6." Click here for the movie's trailer.
Ms. Herz-Sommer was born in Prague. She had 4 siblings, including a twin sister and was known as Gigi. She began learning piano at age 6 was a notable concert pianist by age 16. Her family lost all their fortune in WWI and suffered great deprivation. She married Leopold Sommer, a violinist, had a son, and was quite happy, when the Holocaust came. Her husband died in Germany. She was imprisoned in Terezin with her 6 year old son. She survived in part because she was a pianist and played concerts at the camp. After the war, she moved to Israel and taught music, as well as performed. Her son, Raphael, became a virtuoso cellist. They moved together to London in 1986, where he performed and taught. He died at the age of 64. She lived the rest of her life in London, swam every day, attended philosophy classes, and attributed her long life to her optimism and music. (She said pessimists have too much tension in their bodies, so they die earlier). She said the most important lesson she learned in life is to know the difference between what is important and what is not important. She is survived by two grandsons, David and Ariel Sommer.

  

Paying for Kids? Do Parents Have a Responsibility?

Article: In New Jersey, a girl has moved out of her parents home and has sued her parents in court, demanding they pay for her private Catholic high school tuition, living and transportation costs, and put funds aside for her college fund. According to her parents, the girl moved out on her own, after refusing to do chores or keep curfew. She just wants her parents to pay her bills while she lives elsewhere and doesn't have to abide by their rules. The girl is living at her best friend's house. She claims her parents kicked her out when she turned 18. The girl is a senior honor student and cheerleader.

Discussion:

• Who do you think is right? Defend both the parents and the girl. 
• If you were the judge, what questions would you ask? What would you decide? What further evidence would you need?