Celebrating Israel on Yom Ha'atzmaut

Happy Yom Ha'atzmaut! Today celebrates Israel and commemorates the establishment of the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948.

How will you and your family celebrate Israel this year? We have a few recommendations below!

Crafts and Activities
Check out our list of activities to learn about and celebrate Israel at home and in the classroom. Great for any time of year, they particularly come in handy today!

The Celebrate Israel Parade
The annual Celebrate Israel Parade, begun in 1964, is held every spring in the heart of New York City. Over thirty thousand marchers stroll up Fifth Avenue. The parade showcases groups from elementary schools, high schools, yeshivot, synagogues, Jewish community centers, and many other Jewish institutions. Colorful floats, award winning marching bands, politicians, and entertainers also participate in the parade, showing their support for Israel. Tens of thousands of spectators cheer on the sidelines. The Celebrate Israel Parade is a colossal party, graciously hosted by New York City.

Sounds like fun, but can't make it to Manhattan? Enjoy the parade vicariously with our new fall title Meg Goldberg on Parade about a shy girl with a big imagination who finds plenty of ways to join in the fun - coming soon to bookstores near you!

Explore Israel Through Books!
We love to explore Israel through stories and illustrations, and we have many books dedicated to doing just that!

Hare and Tortoise Race Across Israel, a classic fable retold in a unique environment, is the newest addition to Kar-Ben's Israel-focused collection. As good friends Hare and Tortoise embark on a race from Tel Aviv to the Dead Sea, they're drawn not to well-known landmarks in Israel, but are instead seen enjoying slices of everyday Israeli life. Hare watches soccer games and street performers while Tortoise enjoys falafel and rugelach, and they see the cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as well as the Judean Hills and the desert.


The "Nature in Israel" series by National Jewish Book Award-winning author Allison Ofanansky pairs holidays with celebrations unique to Israel's landscape and features beautiful full-color photographs. Titles include New Month, New Moon, Harvest of Light, What's the Buzz, and Sukkot Treasure Hunt.
 

A Fable for Yom HaShoah

There are many stories we tell to ensure that the Holocaust will never be forgotten. Some are dark, like Elie Wiesel's Night, and some are stories of hope, like Lois Lowry's Number the Stars. This spring, we are proud to offer a book that shows the power of bravery and the importance of never forgetting.

An old man, known as the Wren, plays his hurdy-gurdy, and with the help of his student, the Sparrow, brings hope and inspiration to the people of a small Polish town during the Holocaust. This beautifully illustrated fable by US Children's Poet Laureate (2011-2013) J. Patrick Lewis weaves a lyrical and elegant tale of a mysterious musician and the trusted young friend who rescues the hurdy-gurdy and hides it from its intended fate at the hands of the Nazis. The richly colored illustrations are by award-winning Russian painter and stage designer Yevgenia Nayberg.

This story is a work of imagination inspired by the street performers of the Lodz Ghetto. In the city of Lodz, as in Jewish communities throughout Europe, the Jews were rounded up and packed into a fenced section of Lodz, which became known as the Lodz Ghetto.

In 1940, the Lodz Ghetto, one of the largest ghettos in Europe, held 230,000 people. Six years later, in 1945, when the Soviet Army liberated the city, fewer than 1000 of Lodz’s Jewish community had survived the Nazi horrors.

Music was part of the life of the ghettos, helping to sustain the spirits of the Jewish community in those dark days. Street performers, including children, sang or played music in exchange for a coin, a bit of food, or often nothing at all. Like the Wren, these performers resisted the Nazis with their songs, offering a glimmer of a better world.

As in this story, some of the musical instruments played in the ghettos and concentration camps survived the Holocaust; most of their owners did not. But their music inspired both adults and children to believe that, even in the bleak world of the Shoah, beauty and hope for humanity still lived.

8 Passover Activities for Kids of All Ages

Engage children in the story and traditions of Passover with these fun crafts and activities! From helping to decorate the seder table to learning about the ten plagues with hand-made puppets, these activities will help children feel like a part of the holiday.

A Playful Passover Seder Kit

This eBook from TCJewfolk is full of crafts and activities for toddlers and preschoolers, from building a matzah house to coloring pages featuring seder plate items. The activities here will both entertain and educate this Passover!

A Passover Lesson Plan for 3rd & 4th Grade
These lesson plans, written by A Family Haggadah author Shoshana Silberman, focus on slavery in ancient Egypt and draw connections between ancient and modern slavery. An informative unit for older students.

Create a Beautiful Elijah's Cup
Elijah's cup is an important part of the Passover seder. This craft from The Shiksa in the Kitchen is great for older children, or young children with some adult assistance. Instructions here.

A Handmade Matzah Cover
Matzah is a ubiquitous part of every seder - and now it can have its very own unique cover! We like this matzah cover because it holds three pieces of matzah, each one in its own pocket. This craft is perfect for classrooms or at home. Instructions here.

From Highlights Kids.

 

Passover Puppets
Tell the story of Passover in a fun and interactive way using these Passover finger puppets! Kids can color and cut out these finger puppets to put their own unique touch on the Passover tale. Template here.

From Ann D. Koffsky.

A Plague of Frogs
It has been decided - the plague of frogs is certainly the one to illustrate through crafts. Over at Creative Jewish Mom you can fold origami frogs (great for classrooms of older students) or make these little critters from pom-poms and pipe cleaners.

Make Your Own Seder Placemat
These seder placemats are a sweet handmade touch to a seder table, and reinforce the significance of each item on the seder plate. Instructions here.

From InCultureParent.

 

Create a 3-D Moses
With a template and a toilet paper roll, make a 3-D figure of Moses for storytelling or as a decoration for the classroom or seder table.

From DLTK.