Jewish American Heritage Month

Overview

May is Jewish American Heritage Month! This month serves as a time to celebrate the contributions and experiences of Jewish Americans throughout our nation’s history both here in New York City, and across the country.

The month of May was originally chosen to commemorate the 350th Anniversary of American Jewish History, which took place in May 2004. It was first federally recognized in 2006, thanks to the advocacy efforts of Jewish American community leaders and members of Congress, and it has continued to be celebrated each year since then!

Today, approximately 7.6 million Jewish Americans make up roughly 2.4% of the U.S. population, with roughly a quarter of that number estimated to be living in the New York City metropolitan area. In fact, New York City has the second largest Jewish population of any city in the world, behind only Tel Aviv, Israel.

With such a large population comes a long history, dating all the way back to when the first known Jewish immigrant, Jacob Barsimson, arrived in our city in 1654. The largest wave of Jewish immigration came at the turn of the 20th century, when the population went from about 80,000 Jewish Americans in 1880 to 1.5 million in 1920.

New York City’s large Jewish population has produced trailblazers in nearly every imaginable field—from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to composer Irving Berlin to baseball star Hank Greenberg. These and countless other Jewish New Yorkers have made lasting contributions to our society and culture that we celebrate this month, and all year long.

As we recognize the groundbreaking accomplishments of Jewish Americans throughout history, it is also important to acknowledge the hurdles the community has faced due to antisemitism, which is the hatred of Jewish people on the basis of their identity. Globally, this includes the Holocaust, which was the state-sponsored murder of over six million Jews before and during World War II. Over 1.5 million Holocaust victims were children.

Antisemitism has been, and continues to be present in the United States as well. Throughout the 20th century, Jewish immigrants were impacted by restrictive quotas that limited the number of people who could come into the country from certain racial and ethnic minority groups. Jewish Americans were also significantly impacted by discrimination in other areas, like housing and education, as they were excluded from purchasing homes or attending elite colleges and universities.

During Jewish American Heritage Month, and all year long, it is important to learn this history as we come together to combat antisemitism today, and work towards creating a more inclusive future, free of prejudice and discrimination.

We encourage you to join us throughout May, and all year long, in further exploring the impact that Jewish American communities have had not just on our city, but across the United States. As we celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month together, be sure to check out the resources below!

Events, Exhibitions, and Places to Visit

• Check out the calendar for the Museum of Jewish Heritage NYC, as well as Jewish American Heritage Signature Events.
• Did you know that The Bronx High School of Science has its very own Holocaust Museum and Study Center? Learn more about this unique initiative, and the importance of educating students about the history of the Holocaust. 
• Find an upcoming event for Jewish American Heritage Month—from klezmer music performances to film screenings and storytimes—happening at a New York Public Library branch near you.
• The Emma Lazarus Project is a virtual exhibit from The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS), located in Manhattan, which is focused on the life and work of the Jewish poet wrote the poem included on the Statue of Liberty, “The New Colossus.” You can also check the AJHS calendar for any upcoming events! 
• The National Museum of American Jewish History’s virtual tours feature artifacts, stories, events, and family activities to explore more than 365 years of American Jewish history in music, technology, sports, the military and much more.
  

Reading List

One of our favorite ways to celebrate is with a good book! The suggestions below include works of fiction and non-fiction for every grade level, with titles that feature characters and perspectives that are often not reflected in other popular works. 

Many of these books are readily available through the Citywide Digital Library on Sora, which provides free access to hundreds of digital e-books and audiobooks for our students. For even more reading recommendations, Sora also features over 100 titles for all ages in both the Jewish American Heritage Collection and the   Stop-Antisemitism Collection. 

Video and Audio Resources

• The Library of Congress highlights a comprehensive list of Audio and Video resources from the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, the National Archives, the National Gallery of Art, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, as well as from their own collections.
• The American Jewish Oral History Collection, available through NYPL’s Digital Collections, contains interviews with 2,250 individuals—comprising approximately 100,000 pages of transcripts and 6,000 hours of audiotapes. Of this comprehensive collection of oral histories documenting the Jewish experience in America, 350 full transcripts have been scanned and digitized.
• Also available through NYPL, check out their “Doc Chat” series, which explores digitized items from their collections. Episodes focused on Jewish history include the history of a Yiddish newspaper, a virtual walking tour through photographs of historic synagogues on the Lower East Side, an exploration of Yiddish theater at the turn of the century, and more.

Educator Resources

A comprehensive Jewish American Heritage Month Resource Guide is available to educators on WeTeach NYC, along with the Meilman Virtual Classroom, a curriculum that was developed by the Museum of Jewish Heritage with the support of the New York City Department of Education. The resource guide features helpful lesson plans, background information, and other classroom materials, such as:

• The NYCPS's Action Activists Volume 3 comic, which tells the story of immigrant activists in New York City for middle school students.
• A free lesson plan for students in grades 6–12 from the Institute for Curriculum Services about Jewish Americans including the shared history, ancestry, and culture of American Jews.
• Lessons about the importance and historical context of celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month, along with upcoming events, profiles, and more from the American Jewish Committee. 
• A way to explore your own family history with the Jewish American Heritage Month’s Family History resources.
• A collection of primary sources from the National Archives that highlight notable Jewish Americans and their contributions throughout U.S. history.
• The National Endowment for the Humanities’ “EDSITEment” page on Jewish American Heritage Month and Virtual Library resources. 
• The Jewish Women’s Archive, which provides a wide variety of resources and lesson plans that address topics such as women’s involvement in the Civil Rights and Labor movements, their role in arts and politics, and more.
• An interactive history simulation from Mission US, “City of Immigrants,” in which students can navigate New York City’s Lower East Side in 1907 as Lena, a young Jewish immigrant from Russia. Supporting resources for teachers are also available. 

In addition to these materials, NYCPS has a Resource Guide for Supporting Discussions About Antisemitism, available on WeTeach. The guide includes helpful lesson plans and information for both teachers and students as we work together to combat antisemitism both in and out of the classroom, during Jewish Heritage Month and beyond.  

Also, be sure to check out these Jewish American Heritage Month Resources for Educators, which provides lesson plans and activities to use in middle and high school classrooms throughout the month of May, made possible by UJA-Federation of New York's Jewish American Heritage Month education grant program.

Hidden Voices

Hidden Voices began as a collaboration with the Museum of the City of New York that was initiated to help City students learn about the countless individuals who are often "hidden" from traditional historical records. Each of the people highlighted in the series has made a positive impact on their communities while serving as outstanding examples of leadership, advocacy, and community service. There are several curriculum options available that are especially relevant during Jewish American Heritage Month, including:

• Hidden Voices: Untold Stories in New York City History, which includes profiles of significant Jewish American figures including Larry Kramer, the gay rights activist known for founding ACT UP, the organization that reshaped community and government responses to AIDS.
• Hidden Voices: LGBTQ+ Stories in United States History, which features prominent members of the Jewish American community among its profiles, like Edie Windsor, who is remembered for her role in the legal fight for marriage equality.
• Hidden Voices: Americans with Disabilities in United States History, which features profiles of Jewish Americans with disabilities like Sylvia Flexer Bassoff, a polio survivor and activist who fought against employment discrimination during the Great Depression, and Judith Heumann, a disability rights leader whose advocacy led to the stronger enforcement of Section 504, a law that guaranteed civil rights for Americans with disabilities. 

In addition to these lessons, we regularly feature profiles on history-making individuals who could be considered to be “hidden voices.” During Jewish American Heritage Month, check out our profiles on:

• Bernice Sandler, known as the "Godmother of Title IX," the transformative law that paved the way for gender equality in athletics.
• Edith Windsor, a computer programmer and pioneering LGBTQ+ activist best known for her role in the landmark Supreme Court case United States v. Windsor, which helped lead towards the eventual legalization of gay marriage.
• Judith Heumann, a daughter of Holocaust survivors whose advocacy work earned her the nickname “the Mother of the Disability Rights Movement” for her important role in the fight for equal access for people with disabilities. 

You can find more of our profiles throughout the year on our Hidden Voices webpage.