As Israel emerges from the shadow of missile bombardment and from its engagement with Hizbullah in Lebanon, we engage in the many issues about the "Day After" and the future in the medium and long term. There is no simple path to grasping the overall picture - it is proving both complex and subtle, unfolding before our eyes. 

First and foremost, we would like to empower educators to address educational issues based on information, media resources, analysis, intellectual debate, educational processing and response, and actions that make a difference. There are numerous constructive perspectives to be drawn from exploring what happened in this war, why and how it happened, the aftermath, as well as the implications for Israel's survival and democracy, and for the continued Jewish connection with Israel. There is not only the bitter aftertaste of loss and bereavement, limited victories, suffering, shortfalls and rebuke - which we should not avoid addressing. We have witnessed innumerable examples of: ethics and values in wartime, solidarity in crisis, civilian resilience, personal sacrifice, Zionism – and we would like to bring these important issues and related resources to your attention.
 
We have therefore selected coverage of the events in both depth and multi-faceted breadth, as well as bringing you curricular and informal programming ideas. We hope this will comprise a wide range of options from which you as educators can select the most appropriate focus or flow pattern for your needs. The emphasis will be on presenting factual sources, evaluation, processing, and connecting to Israel.

For this purpose, this series is designed as an ongoing collection of resources, some of which were specially written or updated in 2006, and an educational blog, together with several thematic chapters addressing thematic content areas and links - divided by topic, so that you can access information in manageable menus, by topic and genre. You will see the content growing, as we build up this new series from the foundations.

We would also like to take this opportunity to invite you to submit focus ideas, links, and articles - either for our educational blog, or for the content chapters in the Index.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank many colleagues and all our partnership organizations, as well as external correspondents, who have written and compiled resources for this series – their names are mentioned below.

Please note that information about Copyright and Liability is published on The Jewish Agency website. Content may be copyrighted to The Jewish Agency for Israel, its sections, partners, or third parties. The Jewish Agency is not liable for links to, opinions, design, content or information by or from third parties. 

Gila Ansell Brauner, Editor

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Acknowledgements - List of Contributors

The Department for Jewish Zionist Education:
Alain Attar, Jonathan Ariel (Makom/NACIE), Sarah Atias, Sandrine Ballofet, Liza Barnea, Serah Beizer, Ami Bouganim, Gila Ansell Brauner, Haim Brody, Esther Carciente, Eitan Eliram, Esti Kalman-Moskovitz (Makom/NACIE), Rachel Korazim, Igal Lapidus, Lionel Link, Tami Levi-Nahum, Naomi Najenson, Varda Rafaeli, Ed Snitkoff, Cynthia Tzvibel-Navon, Ilan Wagner (Hillel), Nehama Weingarten-Mintz.

The Israel Department/Partnership 2000:
Sefton Bergson (UJIA/Kavimut-Confrontation Line), Alan Cohen, David Muskal.

Center for Religious Affairs in the Diaspora, The World Zionist Organisation
Abe Abrahami, Helen Abrahami

Educational Partners:
Bnei Akiva
Hillel
Melitz Institutes for Jewish Zionist Education

External:
Haaretz newspaper
The Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Nachama Moskowitz, The Jewish Education Center of Cleveland