MOTL Tour

Tour for Groups of the March of the Living 2023

MOTL Tour

Target Audience: Young Jewish Adults

Length of Tour: 90 minutes

Floors: 3^rd floor, 2^nd floor, 1^st floor, Choderov, Halleluja

Goals of Tour:

• Show depth and continuity of Jewish life and culture in Europe over a millennia.
• Show diversity of Jewish experience in Europe, between trying to integrate and retaining Jewish texts and customs.
• Show interwar years in Europe, and the similarities of the lives of Jews then to ours now.
• Focus on stories of individuals and communities.
• Highlight traditions Jews brought with them over countries and centuries; think about which of our own family traditions we want to bring with us in the future.
• Mutual responsibility within the community

Opening

Three Options for opener: Chodorov Synagogue ceiling, Halleluja gallery, 1^st Floor. Chose a location based on preference and availability. Begin with following introduction while standing at location, then describe location.

Entrance to ANU

1. 1. Do you have a synagogue at home? What does it look like?
   1. Take a look at the inside of the ceiling. What elements surprise you?

Halleluja Gallery

Question: What is synagogue in Hebrew? Why do we call it this? What do we do there? Explain that Jews gather as a community, eat, pray, learn, socialize and more in the beit Knesset.

1. 1. What is the seating like in this synagogue? Are they similar or different from your home synagogue? Explain that the chairs could be moved around, indicating togetherness of the community.
2. 1. What are all of the buildings for? All for prayer? Explain the complexity of the synagogue compound, and emphasize the multi-use of the synagogue as a place to pray, learn, eat and socialize.
3. 1. What is on the floor? Where are the tiles from? Explain that tiles are from China. Sephardic Jews who settled in India did business with other Sephardic Jews who settled in China. Their common language, Ladino, connected them.

First Floor

1. 1. How do you observe Shabbat- individually, with family, or communally? How do you signify a ‘stop’ in your week?
2. Is there a reason that certain parts of the Jewish week or year are done with others? Is there a benefit to experiencing something joyful or sorrowful with others? Should it be mandatory?

Second Floor

1. What groups of people have been transparent throughout history that you want to remember? How can we work to include these invisible groups into our own communities today?
2. 1. Show establishment of European Jewish communities, show how they existed but were separate in language and dress from non-Jewish neighbors. Show complicated relationship.
   1. How were these communities dependent on each other during the Middle Ages?
3. 1. Was it safe to be a Jew in the Middle Ages? Explain complexities of different countries, rulers and time periods.
4. 1. Continue to enhance the idea of a complicated relationship with non-Jewish neighbors. Show diversity of growing Jewish world.
5. 1. Show increasing Jewish integration into world life, but simultaneous anti-Semitism and separation. This section approaches the world affected by the Holocaust.
   1. Do you see any scenes that are familiar to you? If you could include an image of community life from your own home town, what would be in it?

• • Briefly introduce the complicated question Jews had to answer: where do we go?
  • Now that we have gotten up to this point in history, what do you think is the right solution to the Jewish question? Where should they go, and what belief system should they follow?
• • Have you ever acted on behalf of another Jew that you didn’t know, perhaps in a different country? How so? Mutual responsible.

Third Floor:

In light of the great community diversity and in light of the difficult history we saw on our journey, today in the Jewish world – even in our group – there are diverse and different modern Jewish identities. We invite you to the floor to find their personal identity, through an identity or cultural meeting, or to look for what the future of modern Jewish identity is in your eyes.

1. Modern mosaic of Jewish life today and past 150 years. Give orientation of floor.
2. 1. Spend a few minutes with the individuals and families. Find someone that shares your Jewish story.
   1. Have you ever been challenged by someone else with a different Jewish identity? Have you ever struggled to accept someone into your own Jewish community?
3. 1. What do you think explains the drastic population shifts we see in some countries?
4. 1. What is Jewish theater/dance/film/music to you?
5. 1. Is there a special food that you eat with family/friends on holidays or special occasions? Encourage discussion on Jewish food.
6. 1. What quality makes someone a luminary? Who is a hero of yours?

Sikkum:

Three Options for sikkum: Chodorov Synagogue ceiling, Halleluja gallery, 1^st Floor. Chose a location that you did not use for your opening remarks. First, describe location (notes above). Then, use closing conversation:

Question: What is something that surprised you about our museum tour today? What is something that was difficult for you?

Throughout three floors, dozens of countries and over millenia, we have traced the Jewish story and seen how our own is part of the global story. This story is a unique and ongoing one. We are currently the generation responsible for telling the stories of our Jewish ancestors, and thinking of how we want to write our own.