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Fall Semester Courses
Focus Your Jewish Lens (Grades 8-11) Point and Click…Whether you have untapped artistic ambitions or just an interest in learning how to take great pictures, come and feed your creative side at Mercaz. In another “Experiencing Jewish Education through the Arts” course students will experience digital photography and Photoshop with a professional photographer and teacher! Our Judaic teacher will infuse fun activities to get you thinking about Jewish history and learning about your own Jewish history and more! No previous photography experience needed, but this class can handle students with experience as well. Just be prepared to use your imagination and be inspired to create at whatever level of artist you are!
6:30-7:30 Holocaust -
Echoes and Reflections (Grades 8-10) Together we will learn more about the Holocaust and how such a terrible thing could have possibly taken place. We will see what can happen when prejudice and discrimination are allowed to flourish and when individuals and governments fail to take a stand against injustice. We will delve into everything from the resistance, to what non-Jews did to help, to understanding the effects on the children of the holocaust. This course will help us to define our own roles as responsible citizens of the world. Come ready to participate in this multi-media approach to leaning about the Holocaust.
Grades 8-11
Israel Here I come! (Grades 8-11)
Have you already been to Israel and want to learn more about what you saw? Have you not been to Israel YET but want to know more about what to expect? This is the class for you, Yair Cohen comes to us from in Israel and was a First Lieutenant in the Israel Defense Forces. Join him on this adventure about life in Israel. Yair is serving Cincinnati for the next two years as the community Shaliach and will be working throughout the community as an advocate for Israel and to teach about Israel.
Grades 9-12
ZAP! POW! BAM! OY! Graphic Novels
come to life at Mercaz (Grades 9-12) Jews have been instrumental in the creation and production of comic books and graphic novels since two Cleveland teens launched Superman on readers who were hungry for a hero. Since that time, Jewish cartoonists have elevated comic books to a respectable level by producing book length works called “graphic novels” or “sequential art.” Students in this class will learn about graphic novels and its industry, explore a range of graphic novels, and create their own graphic story. No previous art experience needed!
Grades 8-12
The Magic of Midrash (Grades 8-12) How does midrash enliven the biblical text and can the midrashim speak to the burning issues relevant to us today? Midrash is a wide-open and sometimes off-the-wall type of Jewish literature. Step into the sandals of a Biblical figure, uncover and embellish their story, and find the voice, posture, and movement to create a convincing character. You will explore a text, find a character, and bring him or her to life by telling the untold tale. As much as possible, the texts in this class will be read in the original Hebrew, but students of all levels are welcome. Students who took this class before may enroll again, since different texts will be studied.
Advanced Conversational Hebrew
(Grades 8-12) Come to learn and improve your Hebrew speaking skills with a native speaker of the language. Learn everyday terms and phrases that will help you carry on a conversation in Hebrew. This class will immerse you in Hebrew related games and activities. It will improve your vocabulary and conversational skills. So come and experience the Hebrew language beyond the prayer book!
Grades 10-12
The Afterlife (Grades 10-12) Questions surrounding the afterlife are some of the most perplexing and intriguing in our tradition. What does Judaism teach about life after death? This class will delve into this sensitive topic and allow plenty of opportunities for discussion.
7:35-8:30
Senior Seminar (12) Look back, look forward, move on…Your final Mercaz challenge! You’ve made it this far—it’s time for the final round! In this class, you and your classmates will reflect on your experiences of these past 4 years and how they will impact your future. It is here that we will help to prepare you for the next stage in life as you leave your homes and congregations. Push yourself to your Jewish limits—think critically and listen carefully to each other and to guest speakers on topics that affect you as you move forward in life. We will focus on the real decisions you will address in college, from issues around dating, diversity, self-expression, confronting anti-Semitism and more. You will gain the skills to continue your Jewish journey in understanding who you are as Jewish individuals and how that fits into the greater Jewish world. Your class will plan and execute a senior project of their choosing and plan the graduation ceremony together during the course of the year. This is a full year course for all seniors.
Everything I learned about Judaism I
learned from Star Trek (Grades 8-10) Boldly go where no class has gone before! Watch Star Trek videos and learn about Jewish theology at the same time! Talk to your classmates about the Jewish themes in the Star Trek episodes and also have opportunities for creative projects. You might want to write dialogue, think of a new Jewish character, star in your own episode, interview an alien, or even design a costume for your own character. This will depend on what the class finds interesting and challenging. Never heard of Star Trek? That's OK. You can still enjoy this class. Some of the early episodes were from the 60's. We will watch videos from "The Original Series", "The Next Generation", "Voyager", "the Animated Series" (yes that's a cartoon!), and several of the movies including the latest movie from 2009. Here are just some of the questions we will answer during the semester: How are Vulcan's like Jews? Do you really have to travel millions of miles to find G-d? Do the teenagers who live on Alpha V still have to go to Hebrew School? How was Captain Picard's journey to the afterlife similar to what we believe as Jews? Join the discussion and bring your imagination as we prepare to leave space dock this semester. Grades 8-11
Beginner Conversational Hebrew (8-11) Come and learn and improve your Hebrew speaking skills with a native speaker of the language. Learn everyday terms and phrases that will help you carry on a conversation in Hebrew. This class will immerse you in Hebrew related games and activities. It will improve your vocabulary and conversational skills. So see what Hebrew you can discover beyond the prayer book!
Jews in Sports (8-11) Jews have participated in organized sports since ancient times. We will look at the history of the Jewish presence in sports and attempt to answer many intriguing questions. What kind of influence did their Jewishness have on these athletes? We will focus on the athletes, teams, and others associated with sports with the emphasis on the ethical issues they face as Jews. This class will also be looking closely at the history of the Cincinnati Reds in conjunction with the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame. This will be a fun class as we delve through the material and find out what it means to be a Jew in such public arenas
Kabbalah (Grades 8-11) Studying Kabbalah can be dangerous. That’s why, for centuries, people have said that no one under the age of forty should study it - and even then, one should be married, the parent of children, and a pious Torah scholar. But the times have changed. Today, Kabbalah is studied not only by Rabbis, but also by celebrities like Madonna and Demi Moore. Find out why it’s so popular and what it has to say about your spiritual connection to G-d and the universe. Come prepared to share your thoughts in this discussion based course.
JEWGLE: Israel (Grades 8-11) Explore the breaking issues in Israel that interest you. Bring your cell phone, web connection, and curiosity. Each class begins with a topic of interest. You will have the first half of the class to find interesting information about the topic at hand. During the second half of the class students will be invited to present and discuss the information they discovered. We will begin by exploring two current event hot buttons, which began this summer -- the "Cottage Boycott" and "Tent City Protests." The class will choose the remaining topics. We will spend a minimum of one week on each topic. A topic can be extended for more than one week by class vote.
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