Intermediate Chamishi - 7th Grade

The Seventh Grade will have several different themes in both History and Religious studies. Students will explore the history of the Jewish people beginning with the Patriarchs, but concentrating on the Roman Age through the 1800’s. Student s will look at many of the well-known and not-so-well-known historical figures that affected and drove the direction of Jewish history. Students will also spend time examining the Holocaust through a look at individual experiences. They will focus on the timeline leading up to and during the Holocaust, with special attention to the build-up of anti-Semitism in Western Europe. Students will examine their own lives and how it may or may not have been affected by anti-Semitism. As students prepare for the Bar/Bat mitzvah, they will explore some weekly parshot (Torah readings) looking at the literal definition, commentaries and midrashes. They will look at how to examine all of these to write a “drash.” Students will also discuss the Jewish concept of Tzedakah and how they can incorporate that into their own BBM Tzedakah project. On the same theme, students will discuss Jewish ethics as it relates to current events.