Seniors' Jewish Thoughts Presentations

by Shir Levenson, SSLI '26

Yesterday, seniors in Ms. Dubow’s Jewish Thoughts class gave their presentations to the class on several different Israel-related topics. Each student selected a topic from the options, and this mini-research project culminated in 15-minute presentations.

Students chose a topic that was of interest to them from a variety of options, such as the Rabbinate and its powers (including the Church and the Islamic Waqf), who’s who in the Israeli government, Israeli intelligence agencies (Mossad, ShinBet, Aman), infrastructure systems, a timeline of power in Israel (from Biblical Times to now), and historic tourism sites to visit!

The goals of the presentations were for each student to take a deep dive into a topic they find interesting or know very surface-level information about and to become well-versed in the issue so they can teach the class all about it. The presentations included fun facts, historical timelines, and important information related to each issue.

Senior Sarah Shlefstein’s presentation was titled Israel’s Geopolitics. She focused on “Israel's spot on the map, specifically in its region,” and also “spoke about its relationships and main allies, including the US, Canada, Germany, the Czech Republic, and the Abraham Accords Nations, like the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.”

 

A slide from Sarah’s Presentation. (S. Shelfstein)

“The goal was to inform the class about Israel’s geopolitics, especially about the allies that people may not know about. It’s an important thing to know about Israel when learning about history,” Shlefstein said. “My presentation was very informative … and I hope that everyone enjoyed it.”

Senior Shay Ginzburg said, “I did a presentation on the Israeli intelligence agencies. I investigated the three main branches: the ShinBet, Aman, and Mossad. I then dove into the sub-units of the Shin Bet, and specifically spoke about units 8200, 9900, and 540. It was very interesting to talk about key missions and failures of each agency, and to see how everyone reacted.”

Senior Josh Jurmann will share his presentation tomorrow, but during the presentations of others, he “learned that Tzfat is really cool and that it’s one of the holiest cities because of the Kabbalah.” He added that he “also learned about a number of Israeli politicians and their achievements, like Benjamin Netanyahu, who signed the Abraham Accords.”

“I think it’s really important to do these kinds of things so that we, ourselves, are educated and can explain things to people who might not know as much as we do,” Jurmann said.

The presentation will continue tomorrow as everyone in the class takes a turn teaching about their respective topics.

Shir Levenson is an editor for Paw Print Now and has been published on the site since December 2022. Shir is currently a senior at Schechter School of Long Island and can be reached at the following email address: slevenson26@schechterli.org