Rebecca Gaida – Jewish Studies Teacher

During Term 3, Year 5 students have been learning about prophets and how Jews lived in Ancient Israel. Students researched the ancient customs that were practised and wrote diary entries imagining as if they had been stuck in a magical portal and ended up visiting some Israelites. Students also wrote about famous prophets and how those prophets were upstanders and changemakers in their time.

Learning about prophets in those times was to enhance students’ understanding of ancient changemakers, the challenges that they faced, and their methods of leadership. This unit is part of the interdisciplinary Year 5 Term 3 project, Knowing You Changes Me, wherein students research changemakers that have influenced their lives. It is hoped that, through this unit, students will be able to form connections between upstanders and changemakers in different generations and find important causes to fight for so that they become changemakers themselves.

Elijah The Prophet: students’ perspective

Elijah the Prophet, known as Eliyahu HaNavi, was what we would today call a Jewish activist. Our first encounter with Eliyahu is when he translates in the name of God to King Ahab, telling the king that it will not rain whilst the people and Queen Jezebel worship the idol Baal. Eliyahu reminds King Ahab that Adonai is the only true God and that it will not rain in the land until the Jewish people regain their trust and connection with God. 

Eliyahu started campaigning when the king and queen told the people to worship Baal in order to stop the drought and when he saw how the king and queen were unjust and corrupt. Eliyahu is a changemaker because, if he had not done that, the Jewish religion might be extinct today. Eliyahu was trying to prove that Adonai was the one and only God. One of the quotes that Eliyahu might have said is: “Baal doesn’t have any power!”. Eliyahu HaNavi inspires us by showing us how hard work and courage can bring change into the world.

By Chloe Ginsberg and Leah Joshua, Year 5