With an understanding that:
1. It can be difficult if not impossible to find quality, bias-free resources for the classroom and
2. That accurate scholarship is critical to ensuring an informed citizenry and civil society:
In March of 2021, the Federation held a Hate Crimes Training Program via Zoom.
Holocaust Education
Echoes and Reflections Visit echoesandreflections.org
Empowers middle and high school educators with dynamic classroom materials and professional development to confidently teach about the Holocaust.
Gold-standard lesson plans, webinars, online classes, webinars, and toolboxes.
Keene State College’s Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
The center provides materials for educators at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels with lesson plans, classroom presentations, workshops, summer institutes, and more. Browse its educator pages for a full array of resources. In addition to academic programs, the center's on- campus student support includes trips to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, an honor society, and a Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Club.
Visit https://www.keene.edu/academics/ah/cchgs/
The Institute for Curriculum Services ICS (ICSresources.org)
ICS was launched to address historical inaccuracies and misinformation,provides free K-12 on-line primary source based curriculum including a library of maps, PDF’s, slide shows and videos.
ICS also offers live virtual workshop sessions or on-line self paced courses that offer teachers professional development credits.
CURRICULUM topics are listed below and include lesson plans,sources and activities!
Visit ICSresources.org
The Arab-Israeli Conflict
Lesson 1: Zionism & Arab NationalismIn this lesson, students will explore the concept of nationalism and connect the rise of nationalism in Europe to the emergence of both Zionism and Arab nationalism in the late 19th century.
Lesson 2: Broken PromisesIn this lesson, students will examine letters, agreements, and official statements that were written during World War I and shortly after it ended.These documents show how the British made conflicting promises to Jews and Arabs during this period.
Lesson 3: The Mandate EraIn this lesson, students will examine official statements and proposals that are all concerned with how the geographical territory of Palestine would be divided after World War I and who should control the resulting areas.
Lesson 4: From Independence to Egypt-Israel PeaceIn this lesson, students will examine a range of different types of documents central to the formation of the State of Israel, the Wars of 1948 and 1967, and the Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt.
Lesson 5: The Continuing Conflict & Peace ProcessIn this lesson, students will address more recent events, both conflicts and peace efforts, in the region. The primary sources focus on the First and Second Intifadas, the Declaration of Principles (Oslo Accords), the PeaceAgreement between Israel and Jordan, and Israel’s Disengagement from Gaza.
Environmental Challenges & Cooperation
Lesson: Rivers, Reefs & Pipelines This lesson addresses the following essential questions
:•What are some of the biggest environmental challenges that countries in the Middle East face today?
•Can transboundary cooperation on environmental issues help to reduceregional conflict?
•What types of collaborative efforts effectively address environmental challenges?
•For a digital option with all of the materials, use the Adobe Spark versionto your left.
Religion & Politics in the Middle East
This lesson focuses on the complex and diverse religious landscape of Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, and Iran and considers the variety of ways that religion and politics are intertwined in each country. Teachers of World History, Modern History, Global Politics, and Geography will find this session particularly useful. Everything you need to teach this lesson is free and can be easily downloaded.
JUDAISM IN HISTORY
These lessons are ideal for teachers of Ancient Civilization, World History, and World Religions.Ancient Israel - Explore Israelite society in the context of ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. Develop a fuller picture of ancient Israelites’ role in the ancient world, their lasting contributions to the Western world, and the development of Judaism as we know it today.
Lesson 1: Daily Life in Ancient Israel In this interactive learning activity,students will examine the daily life life in a typical ancient Israelite household.
Lesson 2: Ancient Legal Parallels In this exercise, students compare excerpts from Hammurabi’s Code, an ancient collection of laws from Mesopotamia, with laws from the Hebrew Bible, Judaism’s sacred text. To the right, you’ll see a short video describing the code of Hammurabi.
Lesson 3: Ancient Cosmologies Cosmology is a term that refers to thestudy of the structure and origins of the universe. People throughout history have been interested in how the world in which we live is constructed and how it developed. In this interactive learning activity, students will consider ways in which ancient Israelites and Egyptians understood the world in which they lived.
History of European Antisemitism
With rising antisemitism across the U.S. and with schools being major sites of antisemitic incidents (ADL 2018 Audit), teachers around the country expressed a desire to gain a deeper historical understanding. This lesson fills a critical gap in building teachers’ and students’ knowledge and understanding of the historical roots of antisemitism and its manifestations today.
In this lesson, we trace the evolution of antisemitism from pre- Christian through modern times and identify the four interacting forms of antisemitism in the context of European history. With an emphasis on primary sources,ICS’s resources align with state standards and are easily implemented in the classroom.