Important note regarding the copying of programmes

Aims / Objectives :
Aims

• To identify the role of a youth movement in creating a counter culture to make a change in the world.
• To highlight the importance of questioning and challenging things around us e.g Media, Popular Culture, Information etc.
• To reflect LJY Netzer’s value of informed decision making.

Trigger :
Trigger – 15 mins

I will have put around the room various different articles about Israel’s war in Lebanon. Some of them will be pro-Israel, some anti, some factual, some opinion. I will explain that they are to go in and spend 10 mins having a quick look around, and trying to detect bias in any of the sources. We will then have a quick 5 min discussion of what they found.

Main part of the programme :
Method – 40 mins

I will then explain that the activity actually has nothing to do with bias in coverage of the Lebanon war. The point was to get them to think about not just accepting things blindly, to critically examine everything we hear in order to come to an informed decision of our own. I will explain the concept of a counterculture, a group of people who at a specific time disagree about the goals and eventual aims of the majority of people in a society, and give them a couple of examples. I will explain that, in ljy, we value our principles highly, and do not just do as we are told – even if it is the Torah. We are, in at least some senses, a counterculture.

In the background during the next part, I will play a bit of Bob Dylan quietly (set the counterculture mood).

For the next 30 mins, their task (in groups of 4 or so) is to try to fill in a grid I will provide for them. It will have 5 different sources of information (the offline (as opposed to online) media, friends, parents, teachers and the internet). They will have to fill in columns that say things like “example”, “advantages of this kind of information provider”, “disadvantages”, “one area they might be useful for getting information” and “one area they might not be useful”. I will strongly encourage them to discuss what they are doing heavily between themselves; the discussion is almost more important than the activity.

We will come back together again, and spend 10 mins going around the groups explaining what they thought.

Conclusion :
Sikkum – 5 mins

I will explain in more depth what we mean by informed decision-making (including a bit of a plug for Veidah in there) in ljy. I will explain that discussion and criticism, as long as it is constructive, is always welcome on pretty much any part of how ljy runs, how leaders lead, what stances we take on issues etc. Then we will finish with one thing from each person that they have learned to question more throughout the session.

Resources:
None

Notes:
, pens
, Dylan CD
Israel-Lebanon resources
a CD player, the grid