Explain to students that Ariel Burger, the author of the essay they will read, was a teaching assistant to Elie Wiesel. Elie Wiesel was a Humanities professor who taught a course titled “Literature as Memory” at Boston University for close to four decades. The course explored human interaction and understanding and used a range of literature from biblical texts to contemporary fiction. Literature that Professor Wiesel used in his teaching included Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank, The Plague by Albert Camus, and Night, his autobiography. One of the themes that connect these pieces of literature is our shared humanity. Ask students: What other pieces of literature can you think of that explore the theme of our shared humanity?

Share the following quote from Ariel. Ask students: How might literature help us to learn about our own values?

Introduce the essay by telling students that they will read a piece called “Learning and Teaching from the Heart in Troubled Times” by Ariel Burger. The essay explores ways to embrace moral ferocity with self-awareness, amid the suffering and injustices taking place in the world.

Ask students to pay attention to the themes of curiosity and moral ferocity while reading the essay. How does Ariel explore these themes throughout the essay?

Ask students to read the essay, “Learning and Teaching from the Heart in Troubled Times.”

Use the following questions to help students unpack the essay: 

• In the beginning of the essay, Ariel shares some of the injustices taking place in the world at the time he wrote the essay. What injustices does he describe? In addition to these, what are some current injustices that you have witnessed in the news, either locally or globally?  
• Explain the reasons why Ariel is frustrated when he reads the news. 
• How does Ariel describe moral ferocity? Define moral ferocity in your own words.
• "Can we fight against injustice with moral ferocity? And yet, keep our hearts open?" writes Ariel. How might it be possible to fight against injustice with your definition of moral ferocity? What might be the value of keeping your heart open amid this challenge?  

Explore the theme of Memory with students with the following prompts:

• Ask students to define Memory in their own words. 
• Professor Wiesel believed that “education, when designed with a focus on morality and humanism, could change the course of human history.” At the center of Wiesel’s approach was what he called Memory. He defined Memory as “the moral ingredient in education, which humanizes and sensitizes us to one another.” How might our own memories and stories shape us? 
• What stories do you carry that have changed you? Ask a few students to share a story that has shaped them. The story could be from their families, friends, from literature, or from another source. 
• What happens to us as individuals when we listen to each other’s stories? 
• Professor Wiesel believed in the importance of questions to deepen learning. According to Ariel, Wiesel was often asked by his mother as a child, “Did you ask a good question today?” At the beginning of each class, he would begin with students’ questions. “Questions connect us to one another, while answers separate us. Questions open us, while answers close us. There is quest in question,” wrote Wiesel. Describe three ways in which a question is a quest.

How might moral ferocity become balanced with self-awareness? Explore this question and the following prompts with students: 

• “It is not enough to know the facts. We must take things—history, current events—personally,” said Wiesel. When we do, writes Ariel, we can “embrace new ways of thinking, learn new habits of questioning, and ultimately, find a deeper sense of common humanity.” What do you think Wiesel means that we must take history “personally”? 
• In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Elie Wiesel said, “Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.” What are some ways to actively involve yourself in what’s happening in the world? How might you do so while fostering courage and compassion? 
• “Whatever you learn, remember: the learning must make you more, not less, human,” wrote Elie Wiesel. What does this statement mean to you? What might be the purpose of humanizing learning? Describe a time when a story or an encounter allowed you to feel more connected, responsible, and/or sensitive to others. 

Ariel took a course with Professor Wiesel at Boston University titled “Literature of Memory: Faith and Destruction.” Included in the course was Albert Camus’s The Plague. According to Ariel, Camus wasn’t just referencing a real virus or plague. He was addressing the political and moral situation during the 1940s, especially the German Occupation. Professor Wiesel shared with the class, “Camus does not want to make it too easy for us. Our task is to read literature both in its original context, as well as in our own.” Read the following quote from The Plague: “What’s true of all the evils in the world is true of plague as well. It helps men to rise above themselves.” What do you think Camus means by the plague helping “men to rise above themselves”? Describe your personal experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. In what ways have you witnessed an individual or community’s actions be of service to a greater cause? (2-3 paragraphs)

Examine the original illustration (from the Yiddish folktale “Sara Chana at the Tip of the Church Tower) by Ariel Burger which accompanies his essay. Describe what you notice. What components of the illustration are you drawn to? Why? In what ways is the illustration a good companion to Ariel’s essay? Create your own illustration to accompany the themes (bearing witness, curiosity, moral ferocity, and self-awareness) represented in the essay. In what ways might your illustration communicate how to balance moral ferocity with self-awareness? 

Students will pair up to share their earliest family stories. They will then report on their partners’ stories. The story they share could be from parents, grandparents, or even further back in their family’s history. It could be a full story, an image, or even a memory. Students will each take turns sharing their stories for 5-7 minutes and then report on the story. This is an exercise in bearing witness to one another, deep listening, and storytelling.

In April 2020, shortly after the stay-at-home order during the global COVID-19 pandemic, Ariel wrote a visualization practice to help one of his students struggling with isolation and anxiety. Access this short visualization and try it a few times within a week. 

After participating in the visualization, notice how you feel. In what ways do you feel more connected to others, your surroundings, and yourself? Write down your observations in a journal entry.