Curricula and Source Books
Hazon has developed a diverse library of curricula and source books that can be used in the classroom, at home, or as experiential programs. Our tools are geared towards various age groups and have been used in Synagogues, Day Schools, JCCs, and Camps around the world.
Spinning the Dreidel for Chocolate Gelt
Every Hanukkah, Jewish children of all ages receive chocolate gelt as a treat to enjoy during the holiday. Our consumption of chocolate gelt offers us an opportunity to learn more about chocolate, where it comes from, who helps produce it, and how choosing the type of chocolate gelt you eat during Hanukkah can connect with your Jewish values.
As your students grapple with learning that most chocolate production includes forced child labor, they will also learn that Fair Trade designation provides a means to keep children out of chocolate production, helping to support the children, their families, and their communities to rise out of poverty.
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Jewish Teen Environmental Fellowship
Train Teens to be Environmental Leaders
The Jewish Teen Environmental Fellowship offers a unique gateway to Jewish life for teens through a curriculum that combines traditional Jewish learning, hands-on activities, and discussions around contemporary environmental topics. The Fellows will gather to learn about current environmental topics such as sustainability, food justice and access, community agriculture and gardens, and more. Participants connect what they learn directly with actions they can take as they garden, cook, and participate in other hands-on activities. The fellowship deepens teens’ connection to Jewish tradition and to each other, and gives them resources and opportunities to bring their learning back to their circles of friends, families, and communities.
By modeling that it is possible to bridge the particular and universal – to be proudly Jewish, and engaged with the wider world – we’re setting a positive role model for teens about how they can act within the Jewish community to do good in the world. (more…)
Food for Thought Supplement
Created in partnership with NEXT: A Division of Birthright Israel Foundation
Conversation Ideas for Your Table
One day out of seven, we have the opportunity to stop creating and start being. To enjoy the world around us, including friends and family, beautiful places, enjoyable activities. To rest and recharge. If sustainability is about living in ways that don’t exhaust our resources, Shabbat is a great place to start practicing this for ourselves and for the world: imagine if one day out of seven, the entire world stopped buying, producing, driving….
This supplement of texts is taken from Food for Thought, which was designed with the Shabbat table in mind. It helps to frame the conversation with friends and family, and provides insightful discussion questions for all to ponder.
The Food for Thought Supplement was created in partnership with NEXT: A Division of Birthright Israel Foundation, which connects Birthright Israel trip alumni and their peers with meaningful Jewish living and learning opportunities nationally, locally and in Israel, and in parallel, grows and advances the field of young adult engagement professionals.
Brachot Cards
Add some blessing to your everyday life
Slip this handy card into your wallet or purse, and use it for your everyday mindfulness, gratitude, and extraordinary moments.
Download your own Hazon Brachot Card.
Create a Brachot Card with your institution’s logo on it to distribute at events, in gift baskets, and for other occasions, in orders of 500 or more starting at $0.60/unit. Email daniel.infeld@hazon.org for more information and pricing.
Food for Thought
Hazon’s Sourcebook on Jews, Food & Contemporary Life
Questions? Contact us at foodeducation@hazon.org or 212-644-2332 ext 316
About Food For Thought | Contents | Sample | Uses | Purchase
Purchase a copy of Food For Thought
About:
A 130-page sourcebook that draws on a range of texts from within and beyond Jewish traditions to explore a range of topics relating to Jews and food. Written by Hazon’s Executive Director Nigel Savage and Anna Hanau, Hazon’s Associate Director of Food Programs, Food for Thought is designed to encourage participants to think critically about the food that they eat and the ways their food choices affect the health of their community and the planet.
Food For Thought includes traditional Jewish texts, in Hebrew and English, and a range of contemporary Jewish and non-Jewish texts. It is designed to be accessible to people with little Jewish background as well as rigorous and challenging for someone with more extensive Jewish learning.
Everyone who registers to be a JFEN member receives a copy of Food For Thought as a resource.
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Min Ha’Aretz
About | Table of Contents | Sample Lesson | Goals | Benefits
About Min Ha’Aretz:
Hazon’s Min Ha’Aretz student curriculum allows students from grades 5-9 to explore the question, “What is the relationship between Jewish texts, traditions, and practices and the food we eat?” More specifically, “How does Judaism relate to all the processes and choices involved in how we grow, harvest, prepare, and eat our food, as well as manage our waste?” At the beginning of Min Ha’Aretz, students encounter the driving question of this curriculum: what is the relationship between Jewish tradition and food? Over the course of eighteen lessons, divided into five units, the students explore this question and develop a deeper understanding of both the question and its myriad answers. (more…)
Setting the Table
A Cooking Class for Young Families
Starting a family commences a period of change. Expectant parents very quickly transition from thinking for themselves to providing for a new life, and the preparation and anticipation can be overwhelming. Especially when thinking about how we want to feed our new families.
Setting the Table is designed to help couples think through these challenges with a Jewish lens. Participants learn essential tips and cooking techniques that will help them prepare meals for their growing families, highlighting seasonal and local ingredients. Following the cooking portion of the evening, participants gather around the table to enjoy the fruit of their labor and to learn from and grapple with ancient and contemporary texts focused on the experience of a family dinner table. The discussions lead the participants to think about how they wanted to frame their family’s experience around the table. (more…)
Home for Dinner
American family life, including American Jewish family life, has spun more and more out of control, with overscheduled kids and under-connected families. Dinnertime is a time when adults and children can come together after being apart throughout the day, a unique time for families to break bread, interact and reconnect.
Home for Dinner: Hazon’s Family Meals Initiative is a synagogue-based pilot program for late elementary to early middle school students and their parents. Programming at the synagogue allows families to explore together the dynamic interplay of Jews, food, and our complex family lives. As families make the commitment to eat one more meal together a week than they currently do. By engaging families in their home, students in the classroom, and the families as a community together at the synagogue, this multi-faceted approach seeks to re-connect children, parents, and their synagogue community. (more…)
Gan Nashim
During camp, girls spend more time outdoors and in physical proximity to each other, as girls eat, sleep, and play together for weeks and months. Camp can provide an opportunity to create a positive, supportive community instead of an environment where girls compare bodies, wondering how they measure up, or fall short, against their bunkmates, and fostering a breeding ground for disordered eating.
Gan Nashim: Growing Strong Jewish Girls is a health and cooking program which draws upon Jewish tradition to address contemporary challenges of having and maintaining a healthy diet in today’s world. The program specifically focuses on teaching conscious and healthy eating with a Jewish spirit and is designed to be used in camps in a variety of different formats. With an overt focus on healthy eating, Gan Nashim includes hands-on activities and exercises which build skills that the girls can bring back home to support healthy eating throughout their lives. (more…)
Hosting a Sustainable Shabbat Dinner
Healthier and More Sustainable Shabbat Meals
One day out of seven, we have the opportunity to stop creating and start being. To enjoy the world around us, including friends and family, beautiful places, enjoyable activities. To rest and recharge. If sustainability is about living in ways that don’t exhaust our resources, Shabbat is a great place to start practicing this for ourselves and for the world: imagine if one day out of seven, the entire world stopped buying, producing, driving….
But we get ahead of ourselves, this is just about dinner! Or is it? Your Sustainable Shabbat dinner is just one meal, but it may very well be the first meal of the rest of your life (and your guests). All the aspects of hosting a meal, from setting the table, involving your guest, choosing the menu, preparing the food and cleaning up afterwards, are opportunities for you to discover ways to make your actions more sustainable and balanced, and explore the ways that Jewish tradition can support you in living with your values. (more…)
