How To Celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month in Class

Jewish American Heritage Month became a federally recognized holiday in 2006. While you might want to incorporate lessons, reading, or activities to recognize it in your classroom, adding a specialized holiday lesson can feel like one more thing to plan.

You don’t have to start from scratch. We have some simple content and lessons to help you bring Jewish American history, culture, and contributions to your lessons using ready-made resources.

Jump to:

• Teach Jewish American culture and history in social studies
• Discover Jewish American stories and voices in ELA
• Highlight Jewish contributions in STEM

[Teach Jewish American culture and history in social studies](id-ss)

Key takeaways:

• Build background knowledge to help students understand Jewish American identity, traditions, and history before you have deeper discussions.
• Use real people and stories to make contributions feel relevant.
• Connect the past to the present, so students see how history shapes current events and communities.
• Support respectful conversations by providing students with accurate context on sensitive issues such as religion and culture.

Teaching Jewish American culture and history in social studies doesn’t mean you need to create a brand-new unit. You can fold in these topics into lessons you’re already teaching.

Start with background knowledge about Jewish American identity, traditions, and religion. Then move on to topics such as immigration, community life, and major historical events. This sequence helps students build understanding rather than picking up disconnected facts.

What should students know about Jewish American culture and traditions?

Students need a clear starting point for diving into lessons on culture. Topics like religion, traditions, and shared history will come up, and it’s important for students to have a foundation to understand them so they understand how everything is connected.

To build that understanding, use resources like:

• The full text of the U.S. government’s Proclamation on Jewish American Heritage Month, to ground students in why this month matters.
• An explainer article that details the differences between three major branches of Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform.
• An explainer article on the bar mitzvah coming-of-age tradition to show how cultural and religious practices can shape identity.

Who are influential Jewish American trailblazers that students can learn about?

It’s easier to make connections about why culture and tradition matter when students learn about the real people behind the content. Resources on Jewish American trailblazers show how individuals shaped fields such as law, sports, and entertainment. 

Use stories from real, famous figures to anchor bigger ideas around contribution and impact. Some of the people students may be excited to meet are:

• Stan Lee, the founder of Marvel Comics.
• Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
• Former U.S. gymnast Aly Raisman.

How have Jewish American communities formed and grown over time?

Unless students are part of them, they may not see or know how communities form. Jewish American communities, specifically, grew through immigration, shared traditions, and support networks.

Help students connect topics like movement, settlement, and culture with resources like:

• A history article that explains the causes of the great wave of Jewish immigration to the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries.
• An article that explains how delis became popular staples in Jewish American communities.
• An article that explains how Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus” poem found its way onto the Statue of Liberty—and what the poem means to immigrants today.

Why is it important to build background knowledge of Judaism?

Students need a basic understanding of Judaism to make sense of Jewish American culture and history. Without that context, traditions, holidays, and historical references may feel confusing or disconnected.

To build that understanding, share resources like:

• An analysis of the Creation story from Genesis, to connect shared origins across Judaism and Christianity.
• An explainer article on monotheistic religions to clarify what it means to believe in one God.
• An article that looks at the significance of the Holy Land, and what it means to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

‍Newsela Knack: Interested in more religious studies? Check out our Comparative Religions social studies elective course that explores Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Dharmic religions, East Asian and Indigenous religions, and contemporary religious issues.

How can you teach the causes and impact of the Holocaust in a meaningful way?

Students need both facts and context when learning about the Holocaust. Teaching this world history event means helping students understand how it happened, what people experienced, and why it still matters today. Starting a lesson before the Holocaust began can help provide a timeline and sequence to see the full picture, not just the tragedy.

To do this, you can use articles on topics like:

• What Jewish life was like in Poland before the Holocaust, to show what communities looked like prior to the event.
• The only refugee camp in America for Jews fleeing the Nazis, to highlight real responses and limitations.
• How historians view America’s response to the Holocaust, and what factors influenced the government’s actions.

How can you help students understand antisemitism in a thoughtful, age-appropriate way?

Teaching the history of antisemitism in social studies may feel challenging or uncomfortable. However, if you want to include this topic in your Jewish American History Month lessons, you can focus on historical context, patterns of thought, and how language can impact communities.

Keep the focus on awareness and grounded in facts and real-world experiences. This gives students the space to learn, reflect, and build respectful discussion skills. Try the following lesson sequence:

• First, have students read an article about the history of antisemitism to understand how the belief developed over time.
• Next, share the video examining how public figures and media can influence harmful language to support media literacy and critical thinking
• Finally, have students complete a reflect-and-response worksheet on how language can exclude or harm others to help them process and apply what they’ve learned.

[Teach Jewish American stories and voices in ELA](id-ela)

Key takeaways:

• Use literature to build connections so students engage with Jewish American experiences through stories.
• Highlight the author's identity and voice so students see how background shapes writing and perspective.
• Bring historical context into reading, so texts like poems and interviews feel more meaningful and relevant.

Teaching Jewish American stories and voices in ELA gives students another way to approach the content. Instead of starting with history, you start with people, voice, and lived experiences.

Focus on authors, texts, and meaning. Help students connect what they read to identity, culture, and real-world context so learning sticks.

Which Jewish American authors will students want to learn more about?

Students may be more likely to engage with stories when they know who’s behind the text. Jewish American authors bring their personal experience, cultural context, and unique perspectives into their writing.

Highlight both the author and their work with resources like:

• An interview with author Judy Blume about her contribution to American literature to help students connect the author’s life to her work.
• Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus” to explore themes of immigration, identity, and belonging.
• An article about the J.D. Salinger exhibit at the New York Public Library that gave fans a glimpse into his life out of the public eye, and gives context to his writing and influence.

Share books by these and other Jewish American authors with your students this May! Check out our blog about Jewish American Heritage Month books and novels for independent reading suggestions.

[Highlight Jewish contributions in STEM](id-sci)

Key takeaways:

• Connect STEM to real people so students see the individuals behind major discoveries and innovations.
• Show the impact of scientific contributions so learning feels relevant beyond the classroom.
• Highlight diverse role models so more students see themselves in STEM fields.
• Build cross-curricular connections so STEM learning ties into history and identity.

Teaching Jewish contributions in STEM helps students see that science and innovation are shaped by real people and real stories. It also gives you a natural way to connect science with history and identity. Focus on scientists, discoveries, and impact for the most meaningful lessons.

Which Jewish scientists and innovators can you teach about?

Students may know about certain scientific discoveries, but not the people behind them. Highlighting Jewish scientists helps students connect the ideas to real people and their real impact. To build understanding, use resources like:

• A biography of inventor and scientist Albert Einstein.
• An article about the U.K.’s decision to name a 2020 Mars rover after Rosalind Franklin, a pioneering DNA researcher.
• An article about scientist Lise Meitner, who helped discover nuclear fission.

Newsela’s products go beyond Jewish American Heritage Month

We hope these resources make it easier for you to develop relevant, engaging lessons about Jewish American history, influence, and achievements in your class. But Newsela’s products have even more great content, interactive activities, and assessment tools that you can use all year long.

If you’re not a Newsela customer yet, create an account and start your 45-day free trial of our premium content to access everything you need to teach about nearly any historical, current event, or student interest topic in your classroom.