Resources on Jewish Education

The following curriculum resources are designed by Facing History staff to assist Jewish Educators. More resources will be added upon their completion.

Unit Outlines
Grades 7- 12 Jewish Day Schools
This course is designed with middle and high school students in mind. The unit outline can and should be adapted to suit the needs of your class. The extent to which you cover the suggested lessons will depend on the grade that you are teaching as well as the number of classes that you have allocated for teaching the Facing History and Ourselves Scope and Sequence.

Unit Plan for Supplementary Jewish Schools
This unit outline is designed for a 12 to 15 week course at one hour per week. Several lessons can be expanded upon if there is more time. This course is designed for 7th grade and up; it can be made more complex for older students.

Lessons
Membership, Identity and Traditional Jewish Texts - This lesson explores questions of ostracism, peer pressure, inclusion and exclusion, and what causes people to act in ways that they later regret.

The Web of Community: Jewish Life Before the War- This lesson examines how groups can become marginalized beyond the boundaries of a universe of obligation. This lesson can be used with the We and They section of Facing History's scope and sequence.

Obedience and Traditional Jewish Texts: The Milgram Experiment - This lesson explores questions of obedience, and why people may participate in something against their conscience or harm others even against their will. It centers on an experiment about obedience performed by Stanley Milgram at Yale in the 1960's.

Judgment and Traditional Jewish Texts: The Sunflower - This lesson explores issues of judgment and forgiveness through the study of Simon Wiesenthal's book The Sunflower and traditional Jewish texts. The Sunflower raises questions of the limits and possibilities of forgiveness. The use of Jewish texts in this lesson is designed to place moral dilemmas in the context of a 3,000-year-old tradition.


Study Guides
Blessed is the Match Study Guide - This guide includes classroom strategies and activities that will support students as they consider the significance of Hannah Senesh's life and the legacy that she leaves for young people today. Students study Senesh's poetry, letters and diary entries as they consider themes such as adolescent voice, heroism, and activism, as well as the historical context of the film. This guide was written for the educational version of the film, created in partnership with Katahdin Productions.

Download the Jewish Education Supplement to Blessed is the Match