A Retrospective Journey into the Role of a Teacher in a Democratic Society

– What's today's lesson?
– Freedom of expression as a condition for democracy. In wartime.

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Meir is a civics teacher who insists on confronting his students with fundamental questions about their lives in Israel, regardless of what is supposedly "forbidden" to say. Through moments inside and outside the classroom, the boundary between lesson and reality begins to collapse. Words become dangerous, and the personal cost keeps growing.

In a retrospective journey, we dive with Meir into questions about the role of a teacher in a democratic society—and about how to keep a light burning in the darkness.

The play is inspired by the true story of Dr. Meir Baruchin, a civics and history teacher who was arrested and unlawfully dismissed in November 2023 following political statements he published online opposing the war. During the legal proceedings that followed, the profound and mutual bond between Meir and his students came into focus. Baruchin fought in court for the right of civics teachers to broaden their students' civic and political thinking, and for students' right to shape their own moral positions rather than receive them as political dictates. At the end of this legal battle, the State of Israel reinstated Baruchin's teaching license after the court rejected the claim that wartime changes the boundaries of teachers' freedom of expression.

This work is dedicated to all the teachers who fight every day for the civic and moral conscience of their students, despite these threats—and sometimes because of them.