WHAT'S JEWISH ABOUT THE OLYMPICS?

The Summer Olympics of 2004 begin on August 11 and last approximately two weeks. Shortly after they end your school year will begin. As always we encourage you to “See the ‘Jewish’ in the World Around You” by using the ideas in this First Best Bet of the new school season.

We suggest you print out the article from the New York Times now, and save it for when you can use it. The other links should still be available then.

This link - http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/04/dining/04KOSH.html - will take you to an article about a kosher restaurant that recently opened in Athens, near the site of the summer Olympics. This is the trigger for the lesson.

Here are a few issues from that article that you might want to research and/or discuss with your students. Feel free to add your own tasks to these suggestions or to substitute other questions for the ones offered.

The article mentions that one city in Greece used to be called the “Jerusalem of the Balkans.” What does that title mean to you?

http://www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.01.18/fast3.html takes you to an article about the Jewish history of the area as well as interesting information about traditional foods of the Greek Jews. Which city was called the Jerusalem of the Balkans? Why?

According to the article, there are only about 3000 Jews in Athens and another 3000 in the rest of Greece. What happened to the rest of the 80,000 Jews who were there before World War II?

You will find a comprehensive list of relevant sites at http://www.haruth.com/JewsGreece.html. Choose one that tells about Greek Jews in the Holocaust and read it.

There is a synagogue in the Lower East Side of Manhattan called Kehila Kedosha Janina that represents the Jews of Janina, a city in Greece. Find out something about this synagogue at http://www.kkjsm.org/

Read the itinerary of a trip to Jewish Greece at the following link: http://thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=3381.

How many cities did this trip visit? Which would you like to know more about? Why? How do you think you can find out more about it?