Why My Jordanian Students Thought I Was Lying About Judaism

[Little Tich]

Source: The Forward

So, wait, Miss — there is a difference between Jews and Israelis?”

Coming from a seventh-grade Jordanian of Palestinian origin, this question was a breakthrough in my classroom.

As a foreign teacher in a private Jordanian school, I need to be careful what I say in front of my students. I am not allowed to mention the word “Israel,” and I need to tread lightly around any political situation in the region. But as a history teacher, I also have an obligation to distribute information that will help my students become open-minded members of a global society.

When I found out that I would be teaching a world religions class to a classroom of students of predominantly Palestinian origin, I knew that teaching about Judaism would be the greatest challenge. While my classroom is made up of Muslims and Christians, whose religions also stem from the Abrahamic faith, little to no information is taught or known about Judaism, especially in Jordanian schools.

In Jordan, this is because of the neighboring Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Second and third generation students whose grandparents and great-grandparents fled or were forced from their towns in Palestine still carry the burden, the stories, the anger and the strong sense of the right of return. For them, Jews are the other, the oppressors. While Jordan has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1994, the current political crisis has soured the way Jordanians see Jews. And historical information about the Judaism that existed in the region long before this conflict is scarce.


Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/323732/what-i-learned-from-teaching-judaism-in-jordan/

[FLson]

1. An interesting quick read.

But also a hint at the fact that not everyone wants peace, either for themselves or their children.

[hedda_foil]

2. This might be an easy read but it speaks volumes. I can't recommend it highly enough.

[Fumesucker]

3. Most Americans don't know this either

The storyline in the M$M is that Arabs are just evil people who do evil things and hate everyone else, particularly Jews and America, for no reason at all.

I'm really conflicted about a lot of this stuff, my nephew is Iranian-American but as an atheist the Muslim religion in particular makes me uneasy, strict Islam does not allow for atheists to live. On the other hand over the last thirty years or so I've gone from "Israel, plucky little country dealing firmly with irrational enemies on all sides" to "Israel, anachronistic vestige of European colonialism".

[6chars]

4. You are easily swayed

Israel is a colony of which country? Of Europe? Is it not surrounded by enemies? You shouldn't let your disapproval of some Israeli actions make you believe things that are false. But I do see a very strong tendency among Israel's critics to believe it is everything bad about it. Everything. I suspect it has to do with the confirmation bias.

[Fumesucker]

5. Thanks for the laugh, no one who knows me would say that at all..

You think I got forty plus thousand posts on this website agreeing with people?