Roberts, pictured in the middle above, is the son of Jodi and Tim Roberts, Kol Emeth congregants. He is an 11th grader at The Weber School, a private Jewish school in Sandy Springs.
Here’s more about what happened from the Center for Israel Education:
The weekend featured a mix of activities, discussions and educational games designed to expand students’ knowledge and understanding of Israel and Zionism and to help them plan learning programs back home.Center for Israel Education Vice President Rich Walter introduces the teens to the card game Atzmaut, which teaches early Israeli history.
The 24 teens came from Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Michigan and California. Interactive sessions included having teens develop a program goal and craft a program outline.
For example, the students formed a human timeline representing Zionist and Israeli events from 1881 (the start of the First Aliyah) to 2007 (Hamas’ takeover of Gaza), picked out the eight prime ministers among 16 head shots, identified the Israeli locations of cat photos, and played a version of the Food Network show “Chopped” in which six teams made hummus that had to include such ingredients as wheat crackers, hot sauce and orange Gatorade.
“I have a lot of Jewish friends in NFTY. Every one of them supports Israel, but I don’t think a lot of them know about Israel too much,” Roberts said. “I feel like I’m going to be able to teach them and also talk to my friends in Israel.”
CIE and ISMI emphasize context and documentary evidence in the study of Israel’s issues and history but do not advocate specific views, allowing students to reach their own conclusions. To that end, CIE President Ken Stein led two sessions to help the teens own Israel’s story and confront the Israeli-Arab conflict, and the teens got to choose among two or more programs several times during the weekend.
The program included the Abrahamic Reunion, a team of Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze leaders, and explored different perspectives on Israel’s independence in 1948 and diverse elements in modern Israeli culture.
Although Israel was the focus of the weekend, it also addressed anti-Semitism, a topic that took on unexpected immediacy when the massacre occurred at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha synagogue while the institute teens were worshiping and studying at Emory’s Marcus Hillel Center.
(Photos courtesy of the Center for Israel Education)
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