Now that Huberman, 44, has children of her own, she marvels through their eyes at how Israel’s image has changed since she was young. The Jewish homeland has grown up, too, from a fragile mandate to a vital, industrious nation.
Last Sunday her daughter Rachel, 11, and son David, 8, attended their first Israel Independence Day, or Yom HaAtzmaut, celebration at Congregation Beth Israel-Judea in San Francisco. The actual holiday was on Thursday of last week.
The schoolwide event included a mini-re-enactment of the gathering of exiles and mass immigration to Israel in 1948. Immersing themselves in the roles of new Israelis, religious- school students got their mock passports stamped as they journeyed from the Sunday school building to the social hall.
Later in the day, teachers and parents became tour guides, activities supervisors and contemporary Zionist personalities to evoke a thriving pop culture in an ancient country.
Students stuck notes in a mock Western Wall, recreated an archaeological dig, cooked falafel and watched documentaries on the most recent Zionist immigrations of Ethiopian and Russian Jews.
“We did a good job of showing the history without freezing the picture of an Israel of 25 years ago,” Huberman said. “We engaged the kids in what Israel is like now. Historical context is not enough. We have to make current Israeli life real to our kids if we want to make it relevant to them.
“We can’t just talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or rely on the images of Israel in the news,” she said. “The kids aren’t going to go for that.”
Huberman said her daughter, Rachel, was particularly taken by the story of the Ethiopian Jews’ rescues, operations Moses and Solomon. Rachel hadn’t known of the Ethiopian Jews before and got a taste of social justice in Israel.
Claire Mikowski, principal of the religious school, designed the contemporary celebration in lieu of holding a schoolwide seder to retell the story of Israel’s birth, which she said would have been too intellectual for the younger children.
Celebrations and seders marking Yom HaAtzmaut have become the vogue in Jewish educational circles just this year, Mikowski noted.
The special seder is part of a nationwide attempt to create a new tradition that will one day be as powerful as the story of Passover. During the seder, each family tells its own immigration story, and a Haggadah is read that chronicles the birth of Israel.
Faculty at Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco are planning several seders for next week. South Peninsula Hebrew Day School in Sunnyvale hosted its own Independence Day program last month.
Innovators of the new seder want to promote it as well in Israel, where fireworks and a leisurely day off work comprise the more common observance.
Someday, Mikowski warns, no one will be left alive who pre-dates Israel’s birthday or remembers it. By then, it may be too late to make the day meaningful or look back on the historic immigration and tell their family’s story to the children.