SYNAGOGUE, THE HEART OF A COMMUNITY

Service Description

Title of the education: SYNAGOGUE, THE HEART OF A COMMUNITY: AN INTRODUCTION TO JUDAISM Age group: all age groups (content and activities adapted to participants' ages) Duration: 1.5-2 hours What is Judaism and what role did it play in the life of Jewish communities? This educational workshop explores Judaism not only as a faith but also as a way of life and a set of traditions and values. While exploring the People of the Book Gallery, participants will get to know a space that resembles a synagogue, replicating features typical of synagogues in various Lithuanian towns. This space will help partipants to understand the synagogue as one of the most important Jewish communal places – as a house of prayer, learning, gathering, communal decision-making, and tradition. At the workshop, participants will learn about the origins of Judaism, the story of Moses, the Ten Commandments, and the Torah, the foundational text of Jewish faith and tradition. By exploring the Torah scroll and other religious objects participants will discover their purpose and meaning in Jewish religious and daily life. Through stories, film clips, and hands-on activities, participants will discover what Shabbes, kosher rules, and other rituals mean, as well as how religious traditions were passed down from generation to generation. Participants will explore Jewish community life. They will learn about the kehila (an institution of Jewish self-governance), a prayer quorum, the Torah ark, and the roles and responsibilities of Jewish men and women. Through discussions, teamwork, and hands-on tasks, participants will examine how faith and tradition brought people together, how the community cared for its members, and how each member could contribute to communal life. At the end of the workshop, participants will return to the present. They will create a symbol for their own community and reflect on what unites people, what it means to belong to a community, and what values we want to pass on to others. The workshop helps to develop such general competencies as cognitive, cultural, civic, and moral awareness competences, as well as communication skills.