Early Zionism Review Quiz

The following is a quiz I gave my sixth grade students this week... How much do you know about Early Zionism? Answers and further learning can be linked to at the bottom of the entry.

Round One:

1. What was Theodore Herzl’s job?
2. True or false: The First Aliyyah began in 1870. (Skip round two if you can name the correct year.)
3. “Hatikvah” means…?
4. What is an oleh?
5. Kibbutzim were founded on the principles of what political and economic philosophy?
6. Translate the following phrase: “Am Yisrael Hai.”
7. What was the name of the ideal held by the people of the Second and Third Aliyyot?
8. What is a halutz?
9. Name one modern country from which First Aliyyah immigrants came.
10. Name a place outside of Israel where a Jewish state was proposed.
11. What recurring event motivated most of the immigrants to Israel from 1880 to 1910?
12. Define Zionism.

Round Two:

1. Finish the sentence: “Im Tirzu Ein Zo …”
2. Name two (other) modern countries from which Second and Third Aliyyah immigrants came.
3. What is the difference between Eretz Yisrael and Medinat Yisrael?
4. In which European country were the early Zionist Congresses held? (Skip round three if you can name the city.)
5. Why did the Zionists stop their investigation of the Uganda plan?
6. Why did Theodore Herzl become a Zionist (two reasons)?

Round Three:

1. In 1900, which country held political control of the land of Israel?
2. What was the name of the major Zionist group representing all the different Zionists in Europe?
3. Name a French soldier who was tried for a crime he did not commit simply because he was Jewish.
4. Is there still a World Zionist Organization that holds a World Zionist Congress?
5. Which modern Israeli city came first: Petah Tiqvah or Tel Aviv?

Round Four (Final):

· Who donated the money that kept the early olim from Eastern Europe from giving up their new farms and homes?

For Answer Key and Further Learning Click Here.

Sixth Grade Penpals

Sixth Graders: The pen pal letter has been sent. If you would like to know about the students with whom we are corresponding, read the following article and the home page of the organization (the second link):

Giving English New Meaning
AHAVA

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Dear Israeli Friends,

Shalom from the United States!

We are very excited to learn about you and to tell you about ourselves. We have many questions about you and your lives in Israel, but we'll start with a description of our class. We are students at Congregation Etz Chayim, a liberal synagogue in Palo Alto, California. Palo Alto is near San Francisco. We go to "regular" school for about seven hours a day, five days a week (Monday through Friday). What is it like to go to school six days a week?

We do our Jewish learning here. On Wednesdays, we come to the synagogue after school for two more hours of Jewish Studies and Hebrew learning. We also come here at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays and stay here until noon.

One of the nice and unusual things about Etz Chayim is that we have some shared customs and also allow people to follow their own traditions. At our synagogue, men and women sit and pray together, without any separation. We all welcome non-Jews into our services and community. However, some of us sit for the Shema, while others stand. We are interested to know how many of you go to synagogue and what types of synagogues you attend.

Most of us are eleven years old. Many of us have already traveled to other countries including Israel. Some of our favorite vacation spots are Los Angeles, Hawaii, Mexico and Greece. A few of us are planning to visit Israel this summer. Do you have any recommendations for where we should go and what we should do? What are your favorite places in Israel? And have any of you traveled outside of Israel?

When we are not busy at school or the synagogue, we like to "chillax"—chill out and relax. A bunch of us like sports; American football, soccer, baseball, gymnastics, skateboarding, and snowboarding are popular with us. Some of us like to doodle and draw, others like to play video games and surf the internet. All of us like to hang out and chat with our friends!

We are really excited that Hanukkah is almost here. Many of us like spending Shabbat and holidays with our families and friends. What are your favorite Jewish holidays?

We can't wait to hear back from you!

Best wishes,

Kitah Vav

Michael Becky Aaron D. Aaron H. Josh Hannah Maya Frieda Eli Rex Harrison Andy Matt
Rachel Tatiana Ellie Andi Lisanna Jack Talia

Isabel Sasha Alex Ilan Sophie

and their teachers, Rachel and Noya

Cool Israel Puzzle

israeltexttwist.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)

Israel Baseball League

A request was made for me to link to the Israel Baseball League. Here it is:

israelbaseballleague.com: Entry

Additional Maps of Interest

Here is a wonderful map showing the locations of major Jewish settlements in the Land of Israel during the period we are currently studying, 1881-1914. (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/yishuv.html)

Other maps of interest include:

• Ancient Israel during the period of the Judges and Kings of Israel.
• Palestine, as defined by the British Mandate (early 20th Century), which we will cover soon.
• You can also find a history of Israel /Palestine through maps covering ancient Canaan through the present day.

Another Map of Palestine from 1876

Here's the companion to the previous map, one that covers the middle and most of the southern region of Modern Israel. Note the position of Jerusalem and that it is also shown with it's Arabic name, El Kuds. Yafo (Jaffa) is also on the map, but Tel Aviv had not yet been founded. Other modern Israeli cities that were established before 1876 are Arad (in the Negev), Bethlehem, Ashkelon, and Ashdod. Gaza City, now considered part of the Palestinian state, was also already in existence.

Click the link below for a larger image:
Southern Palestine Map

Map of Palestine from 1876

This gorgeous map was drawn by a man named Ridgaway, a couple decades before Herzl gathered the early Zionists together in Switzerland. Although it is called "Middle Palestine," it actually covers what is today northern Israel, the easternmost part of Jordan, southern Lebanon, and maybe a tiny corner of Syria. You might want to compare the map with a contemporary one of the same region.

Things to note on the map are the place names (mostly in Anglicized Arabic), the as-yet undefined borders of the Arab nations as well as Israel, all of which only became separate nations in the 20th Century. Modern Israeli cities which had already been established by 1876 (and appear on the map), include Tzfat (Safed) and Kaysariyya (Caesaria).

A larger image can be found here:
Blue Letter Bible