Ukraine Follow Up: Israel Rescues Ukrainian Jews

Before introducing the article, ask your kids to recall what is going on in the Ukraine (subject of our current event on March 17, 2014. Basically, there has been major political and social unrest in the Ukraine, and it has become increasingly difficult for Jews to live there. 

Article: This week, two Jewish families, numbering 6 people, were at the Donetsk airport waiting to make aliyah/immigrate to Israel. At that moment, rebel forces (soldiers against the government), seized control of the airport, trapping the 2 families. (Kids: why would rebel forces want to control the airport, as a way of taking over the Ukrainian government?) The Jewish Agency, a branch of the Israeli government that helps people move to Israel, immediately began a "fast-paced operation." They snuck the families out of the airport and drove them to another Ukrainian city, Dnepropetrovsk, where they flew to Kiev, where they got on a plane to Tel Aviv. They are now safe in Israel. (Kids: if this hadn't happened, what may have happened to these families' desire to leave Ukraine and go to Israel?) Immigration from Ukraine to Israel has spiked due to the tensions in Ukraine.

See map of Ukraine and find the different cities we are talking about. 

White House Makes Mistake

Article: Over Memorial Day weekend, President Obama made a surprise visit to U.S. soldiers stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan, where the U.S. is at war. By accident, in a memo sent to 6,000 journalists about President Obama's surprise visit, they included the name of the CIA station chief. The CIA is America's secret agent/detective agency; they collect information in countries outside America. The identities of CIA agents, especially station chiefs, is always kept secret. (Kids: why? What could happen if people know who America's secret agents are, operating in foreign lands?) The White House apologized for this mistake and out of courtesy to Obama, the U.S. press did not publish the station chief's name. But what do you think the ramifications (results) of this could be?

New Israel-China Partnership

Article: Hundreds of Chinese government and business officials arrived in Israel this week to announce and work on a partnership between Tel Aviv University and Beijing's Tsinghua University, investing $300 million to establish the XIN Research Center. The Center will research technologies in biotech, solar energy, water and environment. Both Israel and China gave money toward the project, with the majority coming from private donors. This past Tuesday (one week ago today) was the first ever Israel-China summit and some in Israel called it, "China Week," for the sheer number of Chinese visiting Israel. One of the reasons for this is China wants to upgrade its country, and seeks Israel's help to do that.

Kids: What does it mean to "upgrade?" Can you think of other contexts in which we use this word? What are some ways China wants to upgrade? Why does China want to upgrade?

Coup Takeover in Thailand

Article: Today, Thailand's military seized power from the government, taking over control and ousting the Prime Minister. The city of Bangkok is under curfew, meaning no one can go out from 10pm-5am, and rioters are told to disperse. This is the 12th military coup in 84 years. Party officials are under house arrest. The new military government happened without bloodshed and says they plan on restoring the peace after months of political upheaval and street fights, in which over 20 people have died. All TV stations, except for the military's station, have been turned off. Some journalists are still posting online through twitter, but at great risk.

Kids:

• Where is Thailand? Find on a map. 
• What is a "coup," particularly a "military" one? 
• How is a military government different from a democratically elected government? Which do we have in our land? Which would you prefer to live under and why? 
• When all the TV stations except for the military's are turned off, what rights are being limited? (Clue: how do people get information now? Who is controlling the information now and why do they wish to do so?) 

Introducing an amazing new resource

Article: Two brothers, David and Raphael Isaac, were frustrated that so many courses on college campuses supposedly teach the history of Israel were actually teaching misinformation or lies. So they set out to collect old footage and make a website, that presented accurate history. As a result, they came up with http://www.zionism101.org/, a new website with scholarly data, priceless narrated footage, and videos on all aspects of the history. After creating a login, anyone can go in to learn about Israel.

Check it out with your kids and begin watching history: http://www.zionism101.org/. It is truly an amazing resource for all of us!

For instance, check out this video on the first aliyah to Israel--which shows Zerach Barnett, my husband's great-great-great grandfather and one of the early founders of Israel! 

Kids: How can this website education people? How can it be used by teachers? How can it help Israel? 

IDF Combat Camerapeople

Article: The Israeli army has trained 24 soldiers to work as "combat cameramen," a new division of the army to document was Israeli soldiers are doing from the inside. (Kids: why would they want to do this?) They are doing this to create visual evidence of what the IDF actually does, to fight false accusations of what the soldiers do. The combat cameramen will use photographs and videos to show what combat soldiers do. They will train with and follow regular combat units, and one day, the IDF's elite units.

One of the cases spurring this new development was that of the false accusation about Mohammad al-Dura. In the Second Intifada, Palestinians claimed that the IDF shot a child while his father was protecting him, with a video to prove it. However, when the raw video footage was finally watched and investigated forensically, the bullet coming at the boy was not coming from the direction of the Israeli soldiers. Also, the full film reel shows the child moving after he was supposedly dead. In other words, the video had been totally manipulated and made up to hurt Israeli soldiers. It was very successful as many people still believe today that the video was true and that the child died by Israeli bullets.

The new army unit hopes to combat this. Kids: what do you think of this? Will they be successful? What dangers do the cameramen face?

  

Iranian Spy Hackers

Article: There are many ways of being a spy/secret agent for a country. (Kids: name a few ways of spying). One way that has emerged only recently is "cyber-espionage," which means spying by breaking into other country's websites and stealing important information. (Kids: what type of information would they be looking to steal? How would they use it? Who would they give it to?)

Recently, Iranian hackers, called the Ajax Security Team, have broken into 77 U.S. defense companies' websites.  The U.S. discovered this while analyzing certain codes. One way the Ajax Team hacked is by creating a fake website which looked almost identical to a real defense website. They then emailed company employees, inviting them to register at the fake site. Once they did, the users were asked to install special software that allowed the hackers access to company information. An old way they used to hack was by flooding a website with users, causing the site to crash and then gaining access to information. According to analysts, this shows that Iran is getting more sophisticated in its espionage techniques.
(Kids: what are ways you can protect yourself from cyber-crimes when you surf the web?)

Jobs Returning to America

Article: Starting around 3 decades ago, tons of American companies starting shifting production to China and other low-wage countries. (Kids: what does production mean? Guess reasons why it shifted to China?)
For instance, Generac Power Systems moved to China in 2001, wiping out 400 jobs in Wisconsin. They did this because Chinese companies were offering to make the company's product for $100 less per unit than the cost of making it in America.

However, Generac is now moving back to America, creating about 80 jobs, as are many companies. (Kids: guess reasons why they may be moving back to America)

Reasons for this include (1) Chinese labor and transportation costs have increased while U.S. equivalents have not; (2) manufacturing is being done more and more by computers, therefore decreasing labor costs; (3) gas prices have gone up in China but lowered in the U.S., due to new U.S. drilling techniques, which have lowered gas prices in the U.S.; (4) many U.S. consumers complain about the quality of goods made in China -- almost everything needs to be reinspected in America if it comes from China because of quality concerns: (5) the rise in online shopping has increased the need for U.S.-based supply plants.

In sum: prices of things from China are going up, quality is dropping, and deliveries are delayed. So companies are returning back to America. Kids: which is of these reasons do you think is the most important and why?
   

        

Lady Bug to Help Save Israeli Plant

Article: Parasites that prey on Sabra cactus in northern Israel are a huge problem. So Israel has enlisted the help of an unlikely predator: ladybugs. The parasite, called an Etzbarit, is attacking sabra shrubs in the Hula valley. It likes to eat the prickly pear fruit that grows on Sabra cactus. (Kids: have you ever tasted a sabra fruit?) The Sabra bush is important to Israel because it was imported 200 years ago and is famous for being emblematic of the Israeli character (prickly on the outside; sweet on the inside). Scientists have therefore released 150,000 predatory ladybugs, raised at a nearby Kibbutz, to kill the parasite. The ladybugs were originally bred decades ago to curb a beetle population. Now they will serve a new purpose.

Questions:

• Define prey and predator. Give other examples of prey and predators in nature. 
• How can a ladybug solve the predator problem? 
• Are there any other problems that could result from release 150,000 ladybugs into the atmosphere? 

Obituary: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Recently Gabriel Garcia Marquez passed away at the age of 87. His books, written in Spanish and translated into over 25 languages, made him a Nobel prize winner for literature (1982). He is considered the most popular Spanish-language writer since the 17th Century. Many of his books outsold everything in Spanish except the Bible. Some of his most famous books include "Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Love in the Time of Cholera, One Hundred Years of Solitude." (Kids: ask your parents if they've read these books). He is known for magical realism, in which he tells a story the blends magic into it, such as a boy born with a pig's tail. He wrote about everything from poets to beggars, soldiers to musicians.

Garcia Marquez was born in a small Colombian town in 1927, the eldest of 11 children. His family says he was telling stories as soon as he could talk. He became a journalist and married a childhood neighbor, with whom he had 2 sons. The Colombian government accused him of helping an anti-government group, so he moved to Mexico City, where he lived for the rest of his life. He was often denied a visa to the U.S. for his far left-wing politics.


   

Offensive Class Assignment in LA Public Schools

Article: At Los Angeles public schools, 8th graders taking a class in critical thinking were asked to do a writing assignment. The assignment asked them to write about whether the Holocaust happened only "for political gain" or possibly never even occurred at all. Parents who found out about this assignment contacted Jewish organizations like the ADL and Simon Weisenthal Center, who contacted the school board and demanded that the assignment be taken away. Last night, at an emergency school board meeting, the assignment was taken away and the school board apologized for not having stopped the assignment from taking place at the very beginning.

Questions:

• What is critical thinking? Why is it important? 
• Why was the question in this assignment offensive to Jews? 
• Why do some people want to try to make people believe that the Holocaust never happened? Why is this dangerous? 
• If you hear something happen at school that you think is wrong, what actions can you take? 

Hate Crimes in Israel

We're back to current events again! Hope everyone had a great Passover and Yom Haatzmaut! 

Article: In the last month in Israel there have been 6 incidents of Jewish extremists vandalizing Arab property and writing terrible things. For instance, this group, now being called "terrorists" and known as the "price tag" group, have (1) slashed the tires of an Arab man's car; written "death to Arabs" on an Arab man's property; (3) slashed the windows of an Druze man's dental office and spray painted a star of David; and other actions. The Israeli government is seeking to arrest the perpetrators, administratively detain them, and condemn their actions.

Kids: what do you think should be done? Is there any difference if the victim is Arab or Jewish? What makes something a hate crime and why is it hurtful not just to the victim but to the victim's whole community?