December 14 - Reflecting on Unit 3: Respect for All Human Life (Wednesday)

Written by: Betty, Julia F., Sabrina, & Sophie

Our past action session was at the Special Olympics in Yonkers, NY. We were all assigned different roles helping the participants perform physical actions. We cheered them on! The participants varied. Some were talkative and excited and some were shy. Volunteering made me happy seeing how happy the participants were. The Special Olympics are important because it gives the participants an outlet for being able to do physical activities. It made us feel thankful to be able to help them. 

Here are some reflections on how we can apply this lesson to our daily lives:

David and Nick said: "We can apply this by not teasing people with disabilities and try to respect them even though they are different. People use the word retarded a lot without knowing what it means. When we went to the Olympics we realized that we shouldn’t use this word as an insult since we learned that we are all equal. Through this lesson we learned that we should also treat and help them in a way that we want to be treated."

Max and Alex said: "It teaches us not to judge a book by its cover, or in this case, not to judge a person by his or her disabilities. We are all equal. This can even stop bullying, because if bullies realized that they were equal to the people that they picked on, then maybe they wouldn’t bully anyone. It makes us sad to see disabled people on the street, but it is reassuring to know that people are being cared for and enjoying their lives.

Sophie and Julia said: "We will try to not look at people with disabilities differently and we won’t tease people because they are different. We will treat everyone the same even if they are different than us. Keep building relationships with people who are different than you."

Betty and Sabrina said: "Be kind to everyone. You learn stuff from people with disabilities in a different way. You can pass your knowledge on to others to help accept/appreciate the disabled." 

We really enjoyed this action session because it enabled us to not only help the disabled, but to step in their shoes and really consider how it is like to live with a disability.


Have you ever stepped into someone else's shoes? What was it like?

Check out some of our classmates' reflections:

December 11 Videos- Reflecting on Unit 3: Respect for All Human Life

After learning about the Jewish value of respecting all people, the students adapted this lesson to the dangers of making assumptions about other people.  Check out the videos of the skit about the importance of not judging a book by its cover.

December 11 - Reflecting on Unit 3: Respect for All Human Life (Sunday)

 Written by:Alexandra, Jackson, and Zoe


We spent our last action session at the Special Olympics, helping the athletes with their physical fitness day. We counted laps and sit ups, and awarded them with medals during the medal ceremony. It felt really good to help them, and the athletes seemed excited about their program and to meet us. 

Alexandra, David, Harry, and Andrew help out.

During class today, we listened to the song "B'tzelem Elohim" by Dan Nichols. It talks about how everyone is created in God's image. We talked about how this means that we should treat people equally and that everyone has holiness in them just like God. If you look at the videos below that our classmates made, you'll see an example of the importance of treating everyone equally.

Michael is enjoying his volunteer time.

We also have some questions for you! Please answer in the comments section.

• What do you think it means to be created in God's image?
• Have you ever worked with people with special needs? How did it make you feel?