Live, Laugh, Lunch: Discussing Death with Students through Jewish Story and Ritual

This resource provides question prompts and guidance to help educators normalize conversations about death, dying, and mourning in the Jewish school setting. Through guided discussion, students will be exposed to Jewish rituals, values, and stories related to death in an age appropriate manner.  Through these discussions, students can gain the skills and “permission” to talk about death when they are not in a personal time of crisis, to better prepare them for handling future, inevitable encounters with death. 

Program Background: “Death Over Dinner” is a global program that was created in 2013. It invites adults to discuss some of life's bigger questions in the setting of informal dinner conversation. The program came about when its creators saw a need to normalize conversations related to death in American society. The program has since expanded to include an Australian Edition, Healthcare Edition, Jewish Edition and more. Within the Jewish Edition, there are also more specific programs of LGBTQ+, Interfaith, and Vegan editions.