Nine Makom communities are participating in a new project, “The Time Tunnel”, which aims to teach Jewish-Zionist history in North American Jewish supplementary and day schools. The project is based on a book series, written for children ages of 8-12, by the acclaimed Israeli children's books author Galila Ron-Feder-Amit.
Amit has published more than 200 books, which include a series called "The Time Tunnel", originally written in Hebrew, in which two 10-year-old Israeli kids travel through time to events in Jewish-Zionist history, such as the battle on Tel-Hai and the 1967 unification of Jerusalem. Currently, two books have been translated: “Jerusalem Under Siege” (about Jerusalem during the Israeli War of Independence) and “The Dreyfus Affair” (about the famous 1894 trial that instilled in Herzl the need for a Jewish state).
Amit approached Makom with the idea of using these books in North America. After she was asked to autograph all of her books residing in the house of Makom Educational Director Esti Moskovitz, Makom proceeded to contact eleven communities - nine of which were interested in building pilots.
Makom has developed a teacher's manual, a student dictionary for the books, and an evaluation form, which were sent to the communities along with a total of 200 books. The communities are conducting pilots to see if the translated books can cross the cultural and lingual gap and appeal to American children.
“If the pilots succeed, the next step will be to map additional central historical events,” says Moskovitz. Amit has offered to write more books if her series (33 books in all) does not answer all of Makom’s needs - provided, of course, that there is a market for the books. Though there is no doubt that Amit is altruistically motivated and dedicated, her publisher naturally needs to see a profit.
"The potential of this project is enormous," says Moskovitz. "By drawing children to Zionist history through fictional characters and within a fictional plot, the books have the potential not only to raise awareness and create a new kind of conversation in the classroom – but also to create a bridge between Americans and Israelis who can discuss the same books they enjoyed in childhood.”
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