Teaching About Jewish Identity

What Educators Should Know about Teaching Jewish Identity 

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To teach about the Jewish people with accuracy and care, educators need to understand what Jewish identity is - and why it cannot be reduced to a single definition.

Jewish identity is often misunderstood, even in classrooms where educators are committed to representing diverse people and perspectives thoughtfully in their curriculum. When Jewishness is taught exclusively as a religion, for example, students may miss how shared history, culture, ancestry, traditions, and sense of collective belonging shape Jewish cultural identity and connect Jewish people across the world. A deeper understanding of Jewish identity helps K-12 educators build curricula and lesson plans that represent Jewish people more fully, recognize and address antisemitism, and create learning environments where Jewish students and families feel seen and understood.

Classroom connection: In An Eye on Jewish American Identity (grades 6-8), students explore the visible and invisible layers of Jewish American identity and the limits of single-story thinking.
 

Teaching the History of the Jewish People

The Jewish people are an ancient, global people with a shared history spanning more than 3,000 years. 

Originating in the Levant, in the region that includes present-day Israel, Jewish communities have developed across continents and cultures, shaped by migration, exile, persecution, and centuries of life as minorities in diverse societies. Despite this dispersion, Jewish people have maintained connections through shared historical memories, texts, languages, and Jewish traditions, as well as ties to their ancestral homeland. The Hebrew term Am Yisrael, meaning the People of Israel, captures this enduring sense of peoplehood. Today, Jewish communities encompass a wide range of racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, national, and religious backgrounds, reflecting the many places and circumstances in which Jewish life has flourished.

Classroom connection: Who Are the Jewish People? (grades 6-12) takes students through the history of the Jewish people, and Where Will I Stake a Home? (grades 6-12) shows how Jews kept a shared identity across the diaspora.
 

How to Teach Jewish Identity Beyond Religion

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Jewish identity encompasses religion, culture, ancestry, and peoplehood—but cannot be fully understood through any one of these categories alone.

Modern Western societies often organize identity into distinct boxes, such as race, ethnicity, religion, and nationality. Jewish identity predates these modern categories and does not fit neatly within them. Judaism is the religious tradition of the Jewish people, but not all Jews are religious, and Jewish identity does not depend on belief in God or adherence to particular religious practices. In a Pew Research Center survey, 62% of American Jews said being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and/or culture, while 15% said it is mainly a matter of religion. Some Jews experience their Jewishness primarily through faith or ritual; others through family, culture, history, community, or a connection to the Jewish people. Jewish cultural identity is woven through many of these experiences, taking different forms across families and communities.  Jewish identity also crosses political and denominational lines, encompassing a wide range of perspectives and experiences. No single Jewish story, appearance, practice, or point of view can represent the whole.

Classroom connection: The What is Judaism? video and educator guide (grades 6-12) explains why Judaism is considered an ethno-religion, blending religion, peoplehood, culture, and history.

Explaining Jewish Peoplehood to Students

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One helpful way to understand Jewish peoplehood is to think of the Jewish people as an extended family.

Like a family, Jews share a sense of connection across generations and geography, often feeling a bond with people they have never met and a responsibility toward one another. They may share in one another's joy and grief, even when they disagree deeply about religion, politics, or how to interpret their shared history. As with families, Jewish communities are diverse, relationships can be complicated, and belonging can take different forms, including through conversion. The Jewish people—regardless of how individuals' identities present—are connected to each other across time and place.

Classroom connection: In Who Are Your People? Defining Jewish Peoplehood (grades 6-12), students reflect on their own sense of belonging while learning about the diversity of the Jewish people.
 

Why Teach About Jewish Identity in K-12 Classrooms?

Understanding Jewish identity is not simply about learning facts about one community; it is an opportunity to strengthen how students understand people and the world around them.

When students encounter identities that resist easy categorization, they can learn to question assumptions, recognize the limits of stereotypes, hold multiple perspectives, and resist reducing people to a single story. Developing the knowledge and curiosity about Jewish people as a complex, diverse, and enduring human community positions students to extend that same intellectual care to others.