Jewish Americans are a significant population in the United States, comprised of individuals from varied racial and ethnic backgrounds. According to the latest Pew research, “U.S. Jews do not have a single, uniform answer to what being Jewish means. When asked whether being Jewish is mainly a matter of religion, ancestry, culture or some combination of those things, Jews respond in a wide variety of ways, with just one-in-ten saying it is only a matter of religion.” The resources below reflect this diverse population by providing further context and opportunities to learn more about Jewish history, religion, culture, and identity throughout the United States.
There are many ways to further explore Jewish American heritage in the United States and Jewish American history in California. This expansive project titled “Mapping Jewish Los Angeles” provides links to 8 immersive digital exhibits on themes including Sephardic Los Angeles, Yiddish culture in LA, and the contributions of the prolific artist Hugo Ballin to the visual culture of the city. The LA County Library has also compiled a resource list including books, film, and music available online that may support a lesson or your own exploration of Jewish American culture. Other resource guides are available through the National Archives, Public Broadcast Service (PBS), and the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE).
The observation of May as Jewish American Heritage Month began in 2006. Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, is also in May. This month, President Joe Biden declared May 5 through May 12 a national Week of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust.
Teaching Resources:
This inquiry set for sixth-grade students provides an introduction to the history of ancient Judaism through Jewish holidays. The histories of the holidays demonstrate the importance of the agricultural cycle for the ancient Israelites, the centrality of the Temple for the development of Judaism and its practices, and the challenges to religious life from conquerors (Babylonians, Persians, Hellenistic kingdoms, and Romans). This lesson is also available in Spanish!
Immigrants to Angel Island at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
This eighth-grade source set examines the experiences of immigrants at Angel Island and Ellis Island through photographs and first-hand accounts. Students learn why different immigrant groups came to the United States, including the approximately 2 million Jewish people from eastern and southern Europe who immigrated to the U.S. in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
Immigration During the Progressive Era
This inquiry set for eleventh-grade students highlights the experiences of the so-called “new immigrants” of the late nineteenth century in the United States, including Jewish immigrants and descendants of Jewish immigrants. The material chosen for each of the document sets explores themes such as push/pull factors, family and community life, discrimination, and resistance.
Labor Organizing in the Garment Industry
This twelfth-grade inquiry set uses the garment industry as an example of why and how laborers organize for worker protections, while providing historical context. Source Two features a series trademark from the International Ladies Garment Worker’s Union (ILGWU). In the early 1900s, this union’s membership was predominantly young, female, and Jewish.
LGBTQ Primary Source - Early 20th Century Immigration
This lesson plan, part of our LGBTQ+ History Through Primary Sources collection, focuses on early twentieth-century immigration. Students learn about Eve Adams, a Jewish immigrant from Poland whose tea rooms in Chicago and New York became popular gathering places for bohemians and queer people. The FBI followed Adams after learning about her then-unconventional public life and advocated for her deportation. The United States deported Adams in 1927.
Recent Scholarship:
Jews of the Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America, Sandra Fox (February 2023)
From Stanford University Press:
In the decades directly following the Holocaust, American Jewish leaders anxiously debated how to preserve and produce what they considered authentic Jewish culture, fearful that growing affluence and suburbanization threatened the future of Jewish life. Many communal educators and rabbis contended that without educational interventions, Judaism as they understood it would disappear altogether. They pinned their hopes on residential summer camps for Jewish youth: institutions that sprang up across the U.S. in the postwar decades as places for children and teenagers to socialize, recreate, and experience Jewish culture.
Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance of the 1960s, Mark Dollinger (April 2024)
From New York University Press:
Black Power, Jewish Politics charts the transformation of American Jewish political culture from the Cold War liberal consensus of the early postwar years to the rise and influence of Black Power-inspired ethnic nationalism. It shows how, in a period best known for the rise of antisemitism in some parts of the Black community and the breakdown of the alliance between white Jews and Black Americans, Black Power activists enabled Jewish activists to devise a new Judeo-centered political agenda—including the emancipation of Soviet Jews, the rise of Jewish Day Schools, the revitalization of worship services with gender-inclusive liturgy, and the birth of a new form of American Zionism.
Jewish Soldiers in the Wars: the Union Army, Adam D. Mendelsohn (November 2022)
From New York University Press:
What was it like to be a Jew in Lincoln’s armies? The Union army was as diverse as the embattled nation it sought to preserve, a unique mixture of ethnicities, religions, and identities. Almost one Union soldier in four was born abroad, and natives and newcomers fought side-by-side, sometimes uneasily. Yet though scholars have parsed the trials and triumphs of Irish, Germans, African Americans, and others in the Union ranks, they have remained largely silent on the everyday experiences of the largest non-Christian minority to have served.
Forged in America: How Irish-Jewish Encounters Shaped a Nation, Hasia R. Diner with Miriam Nyham Grey (November 2023)
From NYU Press:
The story of America is the story of the unlikely groups of immigrants brought together by their shared outsider status. Urban American life took much of its shape from the arrival of Irish and Jewish immigrants in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and Forged in America is the story of how Irish America and Jewish America collided, cooperated, and collaborated in the cities where they made their homes, all the while shaping American identity and nationhood as we know it.
Marty Glickman: The Life of a Jewish-American Sports Legend, Jeffrey S. Gurock (October 2023)
From NYU Press:
In addition to the stories of how he became a master of American sports airwaves, Marty Glickman has also been remembered as a Jewish athlete who, a decade before he sat in front of a microphone, was cynically barred from running in a signature track event in the 1936 Olympics by anti-Semitic American Olympic officials. This lively biography details this traumatic event and explores not only how he coped for decades with that painful rejection but also examines how he dealt with other anti-Semitic and cultural obstacles that threatened to stymie his career. Glickman’s story underscores the complexities that faced his generation of American Jews as these children of immigrants emerged from their ethnic cocoons and strove to succeed in America amid challenges to their professional and social advancement
Culture Between Canon and Heresy, David Biale (February 2023)
From Stanford University Press:
“This career-spanning anthology from prominent Jewish historian David Biale brings over a dozen of his key essays together for the first time. These pieces, written between 1974 and 2016, are all representative of a method Biale calls "counter-history": "the discovery of vital forces precisely in what others considered marginal, disreputable and irrational." The themes that have preoccupied Biale throughout the course of his distinguished career—in particular power, sexuality, blood, and secular Jewish thought—span the periods of the Bible, late antiquity, and the Middle Ages to the twentieth century.”
Please note that the book above is primarily about Jewish thought and intellectual history. This book was written by UC Davis Emanuel Ringelblum Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Jewish History, David Biale and is a new work by a leading Jewish American scholar. The Epilogue of Culture Between Canon and Heresy is an essay titled “By the Waters of San Francisco: A Partial Autobiography.”
Picture Books
As Good As Anybody by Richard Michelson and Raul Colon.
Story of the remarkable friendship between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Joshua Herschel who, through their personal experiences of discrimination, unite as icons of social justice. Strong message of love, acceptance, and equality for all.
Jalapeno Bagels by Natasha Wing and Robert Casilla.
For International Day at school, Pablo wants to bring something that reflects the cultures of both his Mexican mother and Jewish father. Pablo discovers the perfect solution - jalapeno bagels! Bonus math connection! Multiply a whole number by a fraction to enlarge the recipe Pablo uses to bring his bagels to school.
No Truth Without Ruth: The Life of Ruth Bader Ginsberg by Kathleen Krull and Nancy Zhang.
Years before becoming a justice of the Supreme Court, Ruth had to fight the notion that being female meant that she was less smart, less qualified, and less worthy of attention than her male counterparts. Throughout college, law school, and her work life, she faced discrimination—because she was a woman. This book showcases RBG as a change-maker and fighter for fairness and truth. Students will enjoy chanting "No truth without Ruth." Includes a simple visual timeline, flow chart highlighting the court system, and a Top Ten List of RBG moments.
Tia Fortuna’s New Home: A Jewish Cuban Journey by Ruth Behar and Devon Holzwarth.
Lovely family story of a young girl who helps her Tia move away from her beloved Miami apartment into an assisted living community. When deciding which belongings to take on her journey, Tia explains to Estrella that her most important possessions are those that represent her Cuban and Jewish culture. A nice way to introduce family treasures and mementos.