We all live in communities: in our community, there are people, organizations, friends and relatives. Chagim (Festivals) and different events take place in our community: they are all part of our life in influence us in one way or another.

In this series of lessons, we will address the Jewish community.

Over the centuries, Eretz Yisrael has held its position as the center of the Jewish people – and, in the days of the Second Temple and the era of the Mishnah, its leaders served as the leaders of the whole Jewish people. The changes experienced by the People of Israel - departure into the exile and life in the Diaspora – have created new spiritual centers and centers of a leadership.

Over the generations, the Jewish people have been scattered all over the world, and this is how the Jewish Diaspora developed. Everywhere that Jews have lived, a "Jewish community" has emerged. The term "community" does not only signify a group of people living at the same place, for the Jewish community is unique in its characteristics and its means of consolidation, its different organizations: of study, charity, and leadership. Yet they all have the same goal: to support the Jewish community, strengthen the feeling of togetherness, and preserve Jewish uniqueness.

What is the Jewish community? What are its characteristics? What is its uniqueness? Is the Jewish community a concept from history books, or is the Jewish community, perhaps, still a vital and active entity in our days?

In order to understand the modern Jewish community, we need to ask why the Jewish community looks the way it does; we need to grapple with the millennia-old central concept of Jewish Community and what it means to Jews; and to explore what has preserved the community and its life for so many years.

In this series of lessons we will walk the way of the Jewish community, a path that it has carved over thousands of years, as it changed, developed and confronted new realities, and was obliged, many a time, to adapt itself to difficult circumstances.

Each lesson in the "Jewish Community" series brings information related to the lesson topic, accompanied by individual activities for the student, group activities for the class, and interactive activities between the Israeli group and the partner group in the Diaspora.