Wrap-Up
- Discuss some of the following questions with your students:
- What did you think about as you were putting together your argument for the board meeting?
- What do you think were the strongest arguments made during the board meeting?
- Were you surprised by how the Board voted? Why or why not?
- Why do you think supporting civil rights was such a complicated issue for Jews?
- How, if at all, did the experience of participating in this Board Meeting change the way you think about the Jewish community and social justice?
- Optional: Revisit the line in Maurice Eisendrath's 1963 letter to the congregation in Greenville, MS, in which he writes that the Union of American Hebrew Congregations "ever strides to tread the narrow path between inaction and reckless action."
- What is your take on this statement, having just participated in the Board Meeting? How does one define "inaction" and "reckless action" for an organization? For oneself?
- Summarize what the students have done and what they have said they have learned while preparing for and taking part in the Temple Board Meeting. If relevant, let students know that over the next several lessons, the class will be returning to some of the issues raised today and also expanding on them.
