Hi I'm Charlie. I'm 11 and my religion is Judaism. I feel quite observant to the religion because I follow a lot of the rules and I'm quite spiritual. You can tell if a house is a Jewish house by something called a mezuzah. The mezuzah is the parchment inside containing one of the most important Jewish prayers. This one's not kosher so it's OK to open. There's one on almost every door. And then another one here. These are all my football ones and they're my tennis trophies. In my opinion the best bit aboutbeing Jewish is definitely the food. Well for a lot of special Jewish occasions all my family get together we have big meals which are really nice. It's good to see all of them together. Family's probablythe most important thing.
I'm mad about shoes. It really annoys my mumbecause I always need a new pair. I have probably got 12 13 and that's not includingsport shoes as well. I'm proud to be a Jew because there's not a lot of us but we're still a very strong nation and we hold together.
Video summary
11-year-old Charlie introduces himself, and lists the things the matter to him most in the world. What matters to him?
Food, sport, football, tennis, cycling, family, being Jewish – and shoes! He gives a wide and interesting range of answers to the question ‘what matters to you?’ From 91ȱ Series My Life, My Religion: Judaism.
Teacher Notes
A good way to approach this is to ask pairs to make a list of ten things that matter to their partner. Collect these lists, and read some out – can others guess who the list applies to from 3, 6 or 9 items?
Ask all the children to watch this short clip and challenge them: can they note 8 – or even ten – things that matter to Charlie? If they listed 10 things that matter to them, what would be on the list? How are their lists similar to and different from Charlie’s list? How many things on Charlie’s list are to do with being Jewish, his religion?
Can the pairs of pupils suggest four questions they would like to ask Charlie? These may well be answered in the following clips.
This topic is relevant to KS2 Religious Education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and National 2 Religious Studies in Scotland.
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Jewish girl Me-Me introduces us to the Bat Mitzvah ceremony as she prepares to become a ‘Daughter of the Law’, learning to pray and to read the Torah in public.
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Find out about Hanukkah through the eyes of 11 year old Solly. Solly shows us how his family celebrates and gives us a short history of the origin of the tradition.
Visiting Jerusalem. video
14-year-old Jewish girl Dalia is taking a school trip to Jerusalem, and uses her video camera to record her experiences.
Celebrating Passover. video
10-year-old Solly uses his own video camera to share the experience of his family preparing for the Jewish festival of Passover.
Celebrating Rosh Hashanah. video
11-year-old Charlie from Manchester explains the festival of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year that he celebrates every autumn.
Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest. video
10-year-old Charlie tells us what his family do on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, and how it differs from the rest of the week.
The Torah. video
Young British Jewish boy Charlie meets an expert scribe to learn more about the Torah, the Jewish holy book.
What is Judaism? video
11-year-old Charlie from Manchester introduces the history, traditions and beliefs of the Jewish religion. We see him go to pray with his dad at their Orthodox synagogue.
