The goal for this sample 90-minute workshop, lesson plan, or training outline is to strengthen the ability of the participants to teach, role model, and/or transmit the topic of understanding and managing cultural differences to others. As a group, we will be defining cultural differences, as well as discussing issues of class, race, and nationality (or national origin). While we are speaking about cultural differences, we will not specifically focused on all topics of diversity including religious denominations, gender identity, and family structures as this is covered in a different training. Specifically, this workshop aims to have the following learning objectives: 1. To define, re-familiarize and understand what are cultural differences. 2. To challenge participants to look at cultural differences with a new lens. 3. To help participants learn how to manage and advocate for cultural differences. 4. To practice managing cultural differences. Estimated sample workshop for thirty participants in 90 minutes. Created by Lisa Finkelstein with direct support from Rebecca Weiner, Director of Education, Congregation Sha'ar Zahav

1. Understanding and
Managing Cultural
Difference
Estimated sample workshop for thirty
participants in 90 minutes.
Created by Lisa Finkelstein with
direct support from Rebecca Weiner,
Director of Education, Congregation
Sha'ar Zahav
The goal for this sample 90-minute workshop, lesson plan, or training outline is to strengthen the ability of the
participants to teach, role model, and/or transmit the topic of understanding and managing cultural differences to
others. As a group, we will be defining cultural differences, as well as discussing issues of class, race, and nationality
(or national origin).
While we are speaking about cultural differences, we will not specifically focused on all topics of diversity including
religious denominations, gender identity, and family structures as this is covered in a different training. Specifically,
this workshop aims to have the following learning objectives:
1.
2.
3.
4.
To define, re-familiarize and understand what are cultural differences.
To challenge participants to look at cultural differences with a new lens.
To help participants learn how to manage and advocate for cultural differences.
To practice managing cultural differences.
Time Activity
Aim
Materials
10
Min.
To share
information about
the content of the
workshop and other
practicalities such
as the ground rules,
housekeeping,
goals, agenda and
names.
Distribute
Papers.
Introductions & Agenda Setting
Introduce yourself as the facilitator. State the goal of the workshop: to
strengthen the ability of the Coordinators to teach, role model, and/or transmit
the topic of understanding and managing cultural differences to others.
Agenda check-in
1. Introductions: Introduce facilitator, state the goal of the
workshop, along with the agenda, and introductions (10 Minutes)
2. Creating Safe Space: Housekeeping & Ground Rule-Setting (5
Minutes)
3. Ice Breaker: Up/Down, What our cultural difference looks like
(10 Minutes)
4. First-breakout: Three Scenarios/Three Groups: Read, Discuss,
Act-out, Deconstruct & Suggest Solutions (30 Minutes)
5. Process First-Breakout: Three Scenarios- Breakdown (5 Minutes)
6. Break (5 Minutes)
7. Second-Breakout: Pairs – Three Clear Actions (15 Minutes)
8. Resource Sharing (5 Minutes)
9. Evaluation (5 Minutes)
Go-Around Introduction Directions
In a couple of sentences please share with us:
1. Your name
2. Your gender preferred pronoun (example, She/Her)
3. Where you call home
Understanding and Managing Cultural Difference
To help people get
to know each other
a little and feel
relaxed so they can
get more out of the
workshop.
*Be crafty with the
presentation tools
you choose,
PowerPoint is just
one of many useful
applications i.e.
Prezi, Keynote, etc.
Write the GoAround
Questions on a
Flip Chart,
white board, or
place in a
PowerPoint*.
Write a
simplified
agenda on a
Flip Chart,
white board, or
place in a
PowerPoint.
Write the
Ground-rules
on a Flip Chart,
white board, or
place in a
PowerPoint.
Lisa Finkelstein, Page: 1

2. 4. What we would learn if we Googled you today.
Try to keep it short so we get a chance to hear everyone.
(Start by introducing yourself to model how short contributions can be.)
10
Min.
Housekeeping & Ground Rules
Remind people to take a bio break when needed. Suggest a few
ground rules and then ask the group if they have rules to add. For
example,
1. Stay on task; no side conversations.
2. Listen to others.
3. Speak with kindness.
4. Use a “parking-lot” for topics off-topic or off-agenda
Ice Breaker – Up/Down*: What our cultural difference looks like
Overview
Start with everyone sitting down in one large circle, standing in a
circle, or sitting at the tables and explain the directions. Read the
statements** loudly and clearly so everyone can hear. After each
statement, encourage everyone who is standing, who raised their
hand, or who took a step into the circle to look around and see who
they share something in common with. If the time is right, you can
ask someone to share something about them.
Directions
“One of the ways that we can define cultural difference is within the
sum of the ways that people are both alike and different within issues
of class, race and nationality or national origin. Even within a setculture, there are differences that continue to define our identities.
The dimensions of these differences can influence the ways we
experience the world and how the world experiences us. As a show of
how this is true, even within our small group, I am going to read a list
of statements. If the statement is true for you, stand up—and take a
look around at everyone else either standing with you or not standing
with you. After I read the statement, please sit back down between
statements until another statement applies to you.”
Stand up if…
1. You participated in piano lessons.
2. You have played an instrument around a campfire.
3. You can talk on the phone for as long as you want on a school
or work night because you do not share your phone with
anyone.
4. You attended summer camp.
5. You attended a Jewish summer camp.
6. On Saturday’s your family participated in sport activities like
attending soccer games, going to the movies or skiing.
7. You have a child in your home that relies on you to make
them meals.
8. You have a relative who is disabled.
9. You have lived with a grandparent, or a foster parent.
10. You’re fluent in a language other than English
Understanding and Managing Cultural Difference
An activity
designed to
acknowledge the
cultural difference
in the room, help
the group look at
one another with a
more thoughtful
lens, engage the
group with quick
questions, and open
the participant’s
minds to new and
creative manners of
thinking and
engaging with each
other.
Have the
questions
printed out on a
private piece of
paper to have
the facilitator
read outloud***.
.
*Depending on the
physical abilities in
the room you can
choose to raise
hands or standup/sit-down
respectively.
**Be sure to alter
the questions to
match the
community of
participants you are
working with. Ask
yourself questions
about the
participants in
regards to country
of origin, ethnicity,
and socioeconomic
status. Challenge
your own cultural
understanding or
Lisa Finkelstein, Page: 2

3. 30
Min.
11. Not everyone in your immediate family has the same skin
color.
12. You have felt discriminated against because of the way you
look.
13. You are a vegetarian.
14. You were born or were raised in a country outside of the
United States.
15. You have gone swimming on vacation in Hawaii.
16. Someone you had not met previously, came up to you and
asked, “What are you?”
17. You have heard a racial slur describing your own identity by
someone in your extended family.
18. At least one of your grandparents attended college.
Three Scenarios: Act, Deconstruct & Suggest
Overview
Have the participants break into three different groups that explore
three different scenarios that may emerge in the populations that they
work with.
Directions
“I will be dividing you into three groups. I will want each group to
nominate one person to read out loud one of three scenarios that I
will provide your group with. Once you read the scenario, please
discuss how you can use a few volunteers within each group to roleplay the scene and how as a group you might suggest a solution to the
question posed. It will be helpful if you remember to use only
respectful language even as you role-play in front of the full group.
There are issues of inclusion and exclusion as well a visibility and
invisibility in each of the scenes, please pay attention these so we can
unpack them as a group after the scenes are played out. As a group,
we will discuss the stereotypes, racism, and classism that we saw
within each of the scenes and what we might do differently. Each
group will have five minutes to review the story together. Five more
minutes to prepare the scene and then we will use the remainder of
the time to act out each of the scenes.”
Scene One
Yael is fourteen and is Julie’s older sister. Julie is training for her Bat
Mitzvah and her class regularly does not end on time. Yael’s mother
requested that she knock on the door to the classroom to alert the
teacher that instead of waiting outside in the parking lot like usual
that she and her mother were going to wait next door at the coffee
shop instead. The teacher, Ms. Quarashi confirmed that she would
let Julie know to head immediately to the coffee shop instead of
looking for them in the parking lot. When Yael closed the door and
walked away, a classmate of Julies named Max asked loudly, “Who
was that?” Ms. Quarashi stated that it was Julie’s older sister. Ms.
Quarashi then announced that Julie should meet her family in the
coffee shop next door after class instead of the parking lot like usual.
Max immediately remarked, “That can’t be Julie’s sister. They look
nothing a like!” Julie became visibly uncomfortable at Max’s
statement.
Understanding and Managing Cultural Difference
privileges to ensure
the questions have a
diversified response.
***Make sure to
have an extra piece
of paper with the
questions written in
case a participant is
hearing impaired
The aim in this
exercise is to
recognize how
cultural distinctions
can shape a group,
to practice how to
behave as culturally
inclusive and to
prepare for those
delicate situations
where you may or
may not know the
best way to be an
advocate.
Simply have
the stories
printed on
separate pieces
of paper to
distribute to
each participant
within the three
unique breakout spaces.
We will discuss
how cultural
difference can be
thought of as the
sum of the ways
that people are both
alike and different
as well as how to be
mindful of the
nuances of
difference.
Lisa Finkelstein, Page: 3

4. If you were the teacher, how would you handle the situation?
Scene Two
Donny is an impressive athlete and scholar. While he may be only a
sophomore at San Mateo High School, he is already being scouted for
college baseball and is on the varsity track and field team. He is also a
straight A student. Donny’s parents were both born and raised in the
Former Soviet Union and moved to San Francisco years before
Donny was born. While Donny speaks Russian and English fluently,
he has never actually been to Russia. In school last week, one of
Donny’s classmates, Chloe asked the world affairs teacher, Mr.
Sparks, about why so many people were angry about the Winter
Olympics happening in Sochi, Russia. The teacher, Mr. Sparks not
knowing how to answer the question, hastily recalled that Donny was
Russian and quickly assumed that he must know the answer. Mr.
Sparks responded to Chloe’s question by saying, “Donny, your family
is from Russia. You must know the answer.” Donny became visibly
uncomfortable at the question and for the first time had nothing to say
in class. Chloe chimed in and said, “I understand it is because
everyone is so corrupt and poor there. Is that why your family left,
Donny?”
If you were the teacher, how would you handle the situation?
Scene Three
Ruby is seventeen and is in her senior year of private high school at
San Francisco’s Urban Academy. She has been working as a
classroom assistant at her synagogue for three-years. While the
income is not great, it is helping her with her clothing budget and
lunch money, something her family cannot afford to help her with.
Ruby is getting increasingly nervous because as she was able to secure
a four-year scholarship to high school she has not yet secured a
scholarship for college. Ruby is beginning to think that she may need
to ask to begin to work more hours as a classroom assistant at the
synagogue while attending a local Junior College. One afternoon, a
fourteen-year old student in Ruby’s class named Sasha made a
statement that Ruby would not know what it was like to be poor
because everyone knows that Ruby attends one the most expensive
schools in the city. Ruby was visibly uncomfortable with the
question. Instead of responding to Sasha, she quickly excused herself
from the classroom and on her way out the door mentioned she
needed a 15-minute break.
5 Min.
If you were the teacher, how would you handle the situation?
Three Scenarios - Breakdown
Directions
After the scenarios, ask everyone to get together again and discuss
what are things that come up when facing these situations. What
came up for the groups when acting out?
5 Min.
Begin to plant seeds
about ways we can
use mindfulness
and compassionate
leadership to make
a difference in the
ways a group might
look and interact
with each other.
Have the three
different
scenarios
written out on a
Flip Chart,
white board, or
place in a
PowerPoint.
Break
Understanding and Managing Cultural Difference
Lisa Finkelstein, Page: 4

5. 15
Min.
Pairs – Three Clear Actions
Directions
Then you should have the teens break into pairs this time. Each of
the pairs need to come up with three clear actions on how they will
take from these scenarios and put them into their work as
coordinators. If helpful, give an example, such as suggesting a
multicultural speaker at an event or program that the coordinators are
responsible for.
10
Min.
Resource Sharing
Directions
Ask a volunteer to help write on the board a list of resources that the
group can brainstorm and come up with together. Give examples of
books, websites, and organizations that they can reach out to but
encourage participants to share resources themselves.
•
•
•
•
5 Min.
Insider/Outsider: American Jews and Multiculturalism by David Biale
http://bechollashon.org
Multicultural Posters
Jewish Multicultural Text Study. What text works? Text about the
proverbial Jewish tent? i.e. Vayikra - Leviticus - Chapter 23.42
“For a seven day period you shall live in booths. Every resident
among the Israelites shall live in booths”
Evaluation – Go-around
Directions
With everyone having the chance to speak (or request to pass) in turn
without interruption, ask the group to tell you:
•
•
•
One thing which worked well for them and why.
One thing which did not work so well for them and why.
Something new that they learned.
To further explore
cultural difference,
the pairs will work
to come up with
three creative ways
to incorporate
cultural difference
into their
conversations and
local programs.
Provide accessible
resources for further
exploration and
learning.
Break the group
up into pairs
and make sure
that they have a
pen and a piece
of paper.
Explain that
exploring difference
and managing
cultural difference
makes for a more
engaging and
meaningful
community.
One Volunteer
Scribe
With the aim to
help your learning
as a facilitator as
well as to give the
participants an easy
chance to express
their thoughts or
feelings about how
the workshop went,
do a go-round.
Large Notepad
White Board or
Flip Chart
Pen or Marker
Two Markers
One Volunteer
Scribe
Ask a volunteer to write the responses up on a flipchart as they talk.
Understanding and Managing Cultural Difference
Lisa Finkelstein, Page: 5