Arielle Melamed

Slavery, responsibility and freedom

עבדות, אחריות וחירות

A Pe’ulah

This week our Year 9 Jewish Studies class participated in an outstanding Pe’ulah about slavery, freedom and the importance of being an upstander. 

Having worked in class on an assignment exploring a specific slavery and its relation to the Jewish values of always fighting for justice and being an upstander, this final hands-on activity really summed it all up. 

We started the Pe’ulah with a fun game that split us into two teams, and each team had to try to determine what the other teams’ word was by asking a series of questions. Some words related to Hebrew words we’d previously been studying such as שעבוד (enslavement) and חירות (freedom) whereas others were funny and thought provoking. Overall, we all very much enjoyed this engaging activity.

Coby New

Then, we were split up into groups of five and each group was given a figure who embodies the meaning of being an upstander (איש) and fighting for freedom and justice (צדק). Our group’s figure was Frumka Plotnicka, a selfless woman who fought in Jewish freedom groups during the Second World War. She worked tirelessly to keep the Jews informed and did everything in her power to be an upstander in the face of injustice.

Finally, we participated in many discussions as well as fun games that had all of us smiling, laughing and talking about how we personally connect Judaism to ethics and morality. We have to admit, some of us became very passionate when talking about why we do good in the world, but it was a discussion that broadened our horizons and opened us up to different perspectives we hadn’t considered before. 

We are sure that this Pe’ulah experience is one that will be taken with each and every one of us into many further discussions. We now have the ability to spread our knowledge and widen the circles of people we discuss this thought-provoking topic with. Thank you to our alumni madrichim, Yael Grunseit and Maya Buhrich, for facilitating this experience.

By Arielle Melamed and Coby New