What are the implications of the stories we tell about who we are as a Jewish community? How can Jewish history and primary sources provide new, exciting entry points for our students? Join staff from the Jewish Women's Archive to explore Jewish texts you’ve never heard of, participate in a lively discussion, and leave this session with concrete ways to teach about the power, diversity, and strength of the Jewish community to students of all ages. Created for a webinar presented to the Jewish Educators Assembly.

1. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
You Cannot Be What You Cannot See

2. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Discussion about the stories we teach
• What do you notice about our list?
• How many are women? How many
women are NOT biblical women?
• Why do our curricula look like this?
• What are the implications for student
learning?

3. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Documenting Jewish women’s stories,
elevating their voices, and inspiring them to be
agents of change.

4. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
JEWISH TIME JUMP: NEW YORK
LESSON PLANS ABOUT JUDAISM
AND LABOR TO ACCOMPANY THE
MOBILE GAME

5. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
RISING VOICES FELLOWSHIP

6. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Who is this person?
What did this person do?
Why did they do it?
Who am I?
What do I do / What do I
want to do?
Why do I do it?
You Cannot Be What You Cannot See

7. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
How can primary sources
expand our narrative and
engage our students?
Text Study

8. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Text 1: A Letter from Henrietta Szold
Curricular Connections:
 Jewish rituals (Kaddish,
prayers)
 Jewish heroes (Szold was
founder of Hadassah)
 Life cycle (death and mourning)

9. New York
September 16, 1916
It is impossible for me to find words in which to tell you how deeply I was touched
by your offer to act as “Kaddish” for my dear mother. I cannot even thank you — it
is something that goes beyond thanks. It is beautiful, what you have offered to do
— I shall never forget it.
You will wonder, then, that I cannot accept your offer. Perhaps it would be best for
me not to try to explain to you in writing, but to wait until I see you to tell you why it
is so. I know well, and appreciate what you say about, the Jewish custom; and
Jewish custom is very dear and sacred to me. And yet I cannot ask you to
say Kaddish after my mother. The Kaddish means to me that the survivor publicly
and markedly manifests his wish and intention to assume the relation to the
Jewish community which his parent had, and that so the chain of tradition remains
unbroken from generation to generation, each adding its own link. You can do that
for the generations of your family, I must do that for the generations of my family.

10. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Text 1: A Letter from Henrietta Szold
Essential Questions:
 How do we balance our
community’s traditions with our
own needs surrounding Jewish
ritual?
 How are values passed on
within families?
 How do we show respect for
others?
 What needs do Jewish
mourning rituals address?

11. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Text 1: Follow-up Activities
Elementary School:
Draw a picture of a time your own
beliefs or ideas about ritual or
tradition came in conflict with
someone else’s practice. Then
draw a picture of how you
responded.
Middle School:
Write a letter to a friend or family
member about a ritual or tradition
that is important to you. Be sure to
explain why it is important.
High School:
Research how ritual traditions have
changed in your community or
family over time.

12. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Text 2: Advertisement from Mother Earth
Curricular Connections:
 Holidays (Yom Kippur)
 Jewish values and action (what
do our beliefs look like in
public?)
 Evolution of ritual (how
traditions have changed across
time and place)
 Pluralism and religious diversity

14. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Essential Questions:
 What is the purpose of
celebrating holidays?
 How and why are new
traditions formed?
 How do I understand customs
that are different from my own?
Text 2: Advertisement from Mother Earth

15. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Text 2: Follow-up Activities
Elementary School:
Draw a picture or write a poem
about your favorite holiday that
describes the special things you
do to celebrate it.
Middle School:
Find a Jew who practices
Judaism differently than you do
and interview them about how
they connect to and “do”
Judaism.
High School:
Reimagine (or create a new)
tradition at your school. It could
be a new ritual, celebration, etc.

16. Questions?
?

17. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Natalia Twersky Educator Award
Honoring educators who share JWA’s commitment to
using primary sources to weave Jewish women’s
stories into their lessons and programs.

18. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Who is eligible? What are the prizes?
• Any Jewish educator working with students in grades
6-12
• Two cash prizes
• Winner receives $2,000 + $400 for their school/program
• Finalist receives $500 + $100 for their school/program
• Submission Deadline: June 1, 2015

19. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Examples
Adele Gilman and Jackie Zidar—Studyingthe
congregation’s Confirmation Photos

20. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
Submission requirements
• Statement of purpose
• Lesson plan
• Classroom product (handout, assignment, etc.)
• Two examples of student work
• Two letters of support (from supervisor,
colleague, student, parent, etc.)

21. Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change
THANK YOU!