Beyond the Family Tree: Jewish History and Diversity through Family Names and Languages
In this project-based curricular unit, students explore the diversity of Jews around the world, past and present, including their own family stories about names and languages. Through hands-on activities, primary sources, visual and performing arts engagement, family interviews, and online research, students will connect their family histories with the larger story of Jewish ancestral diversity, enabling them to see themselves as part of that mosaic. The unit culminates in a creative project and showcase.
Target Age:
- Designed for grades 5-12 but ideal for middle grades (grades 5-8)
Details:
- 9 Lessons, roughly 1 hour in length each
- Lessons can be used modularly/mixed and matched
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
- History
- Intergenerational Learning
- Jewish Peoplehood
- Congregational Learning
- Day Schools and Yeshivas
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This collection highlights the racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity of Jews in North America and around the world.
In this lesson, students examine their own first, middle, last, and Hebrew (or Jewish ritual) names.
Through a variety of games, students will activate their own knowledge of Hebrew, then connect it to examples of use of Hebrew by Jews worldwide and throughout history. Finally, students will come up with new ways to add Hebrew into their lives.