Document analysis
Give each student a copy of the document study to discuss in hevruta groups of two. After reviewing the documents, direct students in a discussion about the “spheres of support” they noticed were discussed in each of the documents.
Ask students to muse about whether or not they could make rules about when their own spheres of support might expand or contract. Ask:
Encourage students to brainstorm a list of the kinds of support they might offer. Their lists should include a range, from direct aid and financial charity to forming interest groups that work to change the behaviors of oppressors, encouraging consumer boycotts, and lobbying the government to investigate illegal labor practices, for example. See the introductory essay for this lesson and essay for Lesson 8, as well, which discusses the Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Shalom Bayit campaign, in which Jewish women hiring domestic workers are learning to be allies by using fair labor practices.
- Could you make rules about when your “spheres of support” might expand or contract?
- Under what circumstances might your circles change to include or exclude more people?
- Did anyone’s circles stay the same no matter what happens?