Stories That Shaped A Nation Video Resource Library

While reflecting on their own sense of belonging, students will learn about the diversity of the Jewish people and their strong sense of shared community.

Explore the Jewish people’s connection to the Land of Israel through reflections, poetry, rituals, and trends.

After Jews were exiled from their homeland, ancient Israel, in 70 CE, they moved all over the world, known as the “diaspora.” Students will examine how Jews have shown resilience and creativity in maintaining a shared identity while embracing local influences from wherever they live across the globe.

Jews represent a wide range of cultures, languages, ethnicities, races, and religious practices. As Jews have moved around the globe, they have adapted, blended, and preserved traditions, and found new ways to express their culture. This lesson will show your students how different cultures express their Judaism through the foods they eat and the traditions they observe.

After analyzing how our country’s values and achievements are represented in U.S. monuments, students will learn about some of America’s first Jewish immigrants and imagine how they could be remembered.

Learn about Emma Lazarus, one of the first modern Jewish activists in America, and how her Jewish values influenced her actions and writing.

Explore the history of antisemitism in the United States, with a focus on the late 19th and 20th centuries. Analyze primary sources to uncover how antisemitic ideas spread and write a renewed 21st century promise against bigotry.

Explore waves of Jewish immigration to the United States, from the late 19th and early 20th centuries to more recent arrivals from Cuba, the Soviet Union, and Iran.

Examine how rabbis and other leaders balanced their values with personal and communal risk during the Civil Rights Movement; analyze primary texts, and discuss the difficult choices these leaders faced.

Help students reflect on the tensions often experienced in social change movements, between deeply held values and the personal risks such involvement can bring. Using the Jewish community in Birmingham, Alabama as a case study, students will examine primary sources to better understand the community’s actions.

Explore the Jewish value of dissent and the Talmudic tradition of preserving dissenting opinions while considering the challenges to and importance of free speech in today’s America.

Explore the tension between free speech and hate speech by debating and analyzing the landmark Supreme Court case, National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie. Students will learn to articulate their own perspectives and communicate effectively about dissent, free speech, and hate speech.

Explore and analyze how antisemitism has changed over time through examination of propaganda, data, case studies and videos.

Discuss the nature of democracy and pluralism and explore how antisemitism can inhibit progress toward expanded rights for Jews and other historically marginalized communities in the United States.