Activity for the Jerusalem Trimillenial Celebrations (5756-1996)

Introduction

In the excitement of the preparations for the trimillenial celebrations, you may wish to give your students or group members a visual dimension to Jerusalem when they have never actually been there. Whether you use a video, album or slides, or even a CD, you will wish them to explore and retain the images, the data and their impressions for further review.

Below, you will find the ideas we use for the "More than a Quiz" activity in the Yom Ha'atmaut file series with the text of an around Jerusalem tour-quiz. You will need an outline map of Jerusalem and one of the Old City Walls. If you are not using the web version, you will also require visuals or graphics for each location. {C}

More than a Quiz Activity

Suggestion #1 - for younger participants

Using the line drawings of Jerusalem sites which we have scanned below, and some of your own, make an outline map of Israel in several copies [one for each team] and run this as a competitive activity for teams, each of which should have an Israeli name, of course!

Use the "Jerusalem Tour" below to make up location cards.

Teams receive an envelope with eleven place cards, another envelope with all 22 line drawings, a packet of pins or tape and have to compete to match the right drawings with their locations AND pin them on the map. You can help them by having a control map on the wall or on a transparency. {C}

Suggestion #2 - for teenagers:

"Inside Israel" a pre- or post-Israel Experience Media Program:

For this you will need to have slides of Jerusalem or copy these and other line drawings onto transparency to make your own slides. Alternatively, take and make clips ahead of time from a few Israeli tourist film onto a master tape.

You will also need tapes/cds of Israeli and Jewish music plus a means of editing a soundtrack/video - and a lot of time!

The assignment can be prepared at various levels of sophistication - just music with a series of slides or clips edited together or a fully scripted magnus opus, focusing on any of the experiential aspects of visiting Jerusalem, a diary learning about Jerusalem, the importance of Jerusalem. The tour material below will serve as background information or a possible shot list. {C}

Suggestion #3 - for teenagers:

As part of your events for Yom Yerushalayim, hold a short quiz with two teams or four individual competitors. You will need projection equipment, slides, line drawings.

Question cards can be made in either of the following ways, according to level of knowledge:
Give the definition and ask for the famous place or:
Give the location and ask for why it is famous [3 points for each major detail]

Alternatively:
Make this a family team competition, on the lines of "Give us a Word". This means that there are two teams of four [2 or 4 families]. It is worthwhile picking cards of equivalent difficulty and doing one round if time is limited. If you are going to make an evening of it at a small community gathering, you will obviously need more locations - more cards - and you can change teams around so that everyone gets a chance to play.

The question master holds all the name cards and calls one person from the first team, showing him or her the first card. The competitors' task is to mime to their own team in absolute silence - and in under one minute - the name of the place they are shown. Participants are allowed to use conventions for indicating number of syllables, "sounds like" and so on. A name guessed in 30 seconds brings 3 points; in 60 seconds - 2 points; in 90-120 seconds - only 1 point.

Next, the question master calls the first person from the opposing team and the game continues in this manner.

Jerusalem Tour

1. JERUSALEM EMBLEM

A lion, the symbol of the tribe of Judah. The Hebrew name for a lion - aryeh - is incorporated in "Ariel", one of the biblical names for Jerusalem.

2. JERUSALEM MODEL

Found in the gardens of the Holyland Hotel. It shows what Jerusalem looked like in the first century C.E. Look for the impressive Temple.

3. BIBLICAL ZOO

A zoo with a difference. An attempt has been made to bring every bird and animal mentioned in the Bible to this zoo. Now at a new location in spacious surroundings, in south west Jerusalem.

4. BINYAN HAKNESSET

The Israeli parliament building where the 120 members meet. The building is rectangular in shape, and has columns.

5. SHRINE OF THE BOOK

One of several buildings which form part of the Israel National Museum. It houses the Dead Sea Scrolls; its roof resembles the shape of the top of an earthenware jar.

6. ROMAN AMPITHEATER - OPEN AIR THEATER

Part of the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University. The Hebrew University was opened in 1925. Among the many distinguished guests were Lord Balfour, Chaim Weizmann and Chief Rabbi Abraham Kook.

7. MONTEFIORE'S WINDMILL

The famous landmark in the Yemin Moshe neighborhood, named in honor of Moses Montefiore, who planned the first new Jewish section outside the old city walls in 1860.

8. YAD VASHEM

The official memorial and center for the commemoration of the 6,000,000 Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Look below the Jerusalem emblem.

9. HERZL'S TOMB

The resting place of Dr. Theodor Herzl, the Zionist visionary, who founded the Zionist Organization and planned the establishment of the State of Israel 50 years before it came into being.
Look for the Hebrew name.

10. MENORAH

The symbol of the State of Israel, a seven-branch candelabrum commemorating the ancient Menorah of the Temple. This modern Menorah is decorated with 29 panels depicting the history of the Jewish people.

11. DAVID'S TOWER or Citadel of David

A large fortress on the old city walls, where Herod built his palace.

12. KOTEL or KOTEL MA'ARAVI

The Western Wall, the last surviving wall of the ancient Jewish Temples.

13. LION'S GATE

One of the many gates on the old city walls of Jerusalem. It takes its name from the lions carved in the wall on either side of the gate. Look for the very small lions.

14. MACCABIAH STADIUM

Here, every four years, Jewish sportsmen and women compete in a "Jewish Olympics" called the Maccabiah in honor of the ancient Maccabean heroes.

15. SILOAM POOL

You can see the steps that lead to the mouth of the tunnel made by the workers of King Hezekiah in 700 B.C.E. to improve the water supply of Jerusalem.

16. HADASSAH HOSPITAL

The famous medical center in Ein Kerem, which has a synagogue with 12 windows created by the artist Marc Chagall. Each window depicts one of the twelve biblical tribes.

17. KENNEDY MEMORIAL

Erected in honor of John F. Kennedy, the young American President who was assassinated in 1963. The Memorial resembles a large tree trunk; each of the ribs running down the side represents one of the state of the Union.

18. HEICHAL SHLOMO

The office of the Chief Rabbinate in Israel and the supreme religious center of Israel.

19. MISHKAN HANASI

The official residence of the President of Israel, on HaNasi Boulevard.

20. YAD AVSHALOM

The traditional tomb of Absalom, the rebellious son of King David, situated in the Valley of Kidron.

21. MOSSAD HARAV KOOK

The famous institute and publishing house named for the first Chief Rabbi of [pre-state] modern Israel, Rabbi Abraham Kook.

22. BEZALEL SCHOOL OF ART

Named for the biblical artist and craftsman responsible for the furnishings of the mobile Tabernacle in the time of Moses.

23. TOMB OF THE JUDGES

The burial place of the members of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of ancient Israel. The tomb contains 71 burial places carved from the natural rock.

24. HEBREW UNIVERSITY SYNAGOGUE

Look for the onion-shaped dome of this unusual synagogue, below the Maccabiah Stadium.

25. TRUMAN PEACE CENTER

Named for Harry Truman, the American President who played a major role in the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. The Center is part of the Hebrew University and is located below the Ampitheater.

26. SUPREME COURT

New complex of buildings completed for Israel's Supreme Court which also sits as the highest Court of Appeal and functions as a constitutional court. Noted for its spacious construction and total use of natural daylight. Find it near the Knesset.

27. TEDDY KOLLEK SPORTS STADIUM

Large new stadium outside the new commercial complex in south west Jerusalem, near the Biblical Zoo. Named for Jerusalem's veteran former mayor.