Why teach this
Why Jewish history belongs in K–5.
Children who do not encounter difference up close in early grades can learn to see it as foreign. That is how othering begins — not in adolescence, but earlier, in the quiet absence of a face, a holiday, a story, a way of cooking, a building down the street.
Most American children will not meet a Jewish family in their daily lives. Jews are about two percent of the country's population, concentrated in a handful of metropolitan areas. For children elsewhere, school is the most likely place an encounter will happen. If school does not supply it, other sources will — and those often supply stereotypes rather than people.
When a child's first encounter with the word Jewish is in the context of mass murder, a frame is set: Jewish equals victim equals tragedy. A child who first meets Jewish life through a piece of challah, a lit menorah, a Shabbat table, a synagogue she might recognize on a drive, has a frame that holds people in it. The Holocaust then registers, in middle and high school, as a catastrophe done to a living people — not as the whole of who they were.
What is true here for Jewish history is true for any minority. A child who learns to meet one unfamiliar group with curiosity rather than caricature has built a skill that serves her for every unfamiliar neighbor she will ever meet.
Developmental appropriateness
What belongs at this age — and what does not.
This portal introduces Jewish life, history, and culture. It does not teach the Holocaust. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and state bodies such as the Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission do not recommend explicit Holocaust instruction before sixth grade. This material is what comes before that — and it is what makes later Holocaust instruction land correctly.
A state commission makes the same case
The Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission lists "Introducing Jewish Identity/Judaism" among its recommended elementary themes for a specific reason, in its own words: so that when Holocaust instruction occurs in the upper grades, it is not a student's first introduction to Jews or Judaism — and so that students do not come to perceive Jewish identity solely through the lens of victimization.
That is exactly the work this portal supports. Introducing Jewish life early is not a supplement to Holocaust education; it is a precondition for teaching it well.
For K–5 classrooms
The six core topics.
The same kind of introduction K–5 curricula already give to other world civilizations — Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Chinese, Indian — given to Jewish civilization at the same age, in the same way. Each topic below carries a short framing and vetted resources from trusted institutions, all free or available through standard school subscriptions.
Who are the Jewish people?
Jews are a people and a civilization, with a shared history, language, homeland, and culture, not only a religion. Families who look different and live in different countries all belong to one global people. A good first answer to "what is a Jew?" is "a member of a very old people," before it is anything about belief.
What is Judaism?
The tradition dimension: the Torah as a handwritten scroll, the synagogue as a gathering place, the rhythm of a week that ends with Shabbat. Taught the way the curriculum already teaches any tradition — through what people do and the places they gather, not doctrine.
What do they believe and celebrate?
Best taught as what a child can see and mark: the holidays across the year (Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, Passover, Purim) and the values lived through action — feeding the hungry, welcoming guests, caring for the sick, repairing the world. Many of these values appear in other traditions too, which makes them a natural place to begin.
Jewish communities around the world.
Jewish families have lived in Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Ethiopia, India, Spain, Poland, and the United States, each with its own foods, music, and dress. Studying this diversity breaks the single-image stereotype and shows a people spread across the whole world.
Stories, foods, music, and words.
The lived culture a child can taste, hear, and say: folktales, challah and latkes, klezmer and Sephardi song, and the Hebrew and Yiddish words that have entered English. The most sensory, most accessible doorway for the youngest students.
How Jewish people try to live.
Mitzvot (good deeds that are also commandments), tzedakah (giving as a kind of justice, not just charity), chesed (kindness no one can repay), and tikkun olam (the idea that the world is something we help repair). Many of these — feeding the hungry, welcoming guests, caring for the sick — are values children meet in other traditions too, which makes them a natural place to begin: a familiar idea in an unfamiliar community.
For upper elementary and up · separate from the core unit
When symbols and hate enter the classroom.
Some teachers find that incidents involving hate symbols (drawn on bathroom walls, on lockers, on social media) start appearing in their schools as early as upper elementary. For this teaching moment, The Makor Project does not build its own lesson. The Anti-Defamation League has done that work for decades and remains the field-standard resource. The Makor Project's contribution is the civilizational foundation in the six topics above; on incident response and hate-symbol education, we direct teachers to the ADL.
ADL · Incident Response Resources for K–12 Schools. A curated hub of vetted, grade-banded lessons and strategies, including When Hateful Symbols Cause Hurt and Harm (calibrated for upper elementary), Words That Can Hurt, Help, and Heal, and A Guide for Responding to School-Based Bias Incidents. Teachers can pick the lesson that fits their grade band and the specific incident.
The core K–5 unit above is about who Jewish people are. This section is about what to do when something else happens — and on that, the field already has strong resources we point teachers toward rather than duplicate.
Built lessons you can teach
Ready-to-teach Makor lessons.
Each lesson below is built by The Makor Project — a teacher's guide with timing and discussion questions, hands-on handouts, and a vocabulary card, free to print and use. They are grade-tagged; different lessons suit different grades. These are review-ready drafts; a classroom teacher's eye is always welcome before use.
Where Did the Synagogue Come From?
The fullest lesson, with a projectable slideshow. It traces how the synagogue became a "portable house of meeting" that let Jewish communities keep their traditions anywhere in the world.
The Jewish Year
A year of Jewish holidays — Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, Purim, Passover, and weekly Shabbat — told through what families do. With a "wheel of the year" and a matching activity.
Jewish Communities Around the World
One people, many homes — Iraqi, Yemenite, Ethiopian, Moroccan, Spanish, Eastern European, and American Jewish communities, mapped on a world-map handout with their own foods, music, and languages.
Doing Good: Jewish Values
Values you can see in action — tzedakah, chesed, tikkun olam — taught comparatively beside the other traditions a class studies, ending with one kind act each student will try.
A Shabbat Table
The weekly day of rest, seen through the most familiar thing of all — a family meal. With a "set the Shabbat table" cut-and-paste activity.
Trusted classroom resources
Where teachers already go.
The Makor Project does not duplicate the strong K–5 materials that established institutions already provide. For several teaching needs, the best move is to point you straight to them — all free or low-cost, all classroom-vetted.
PJ Library
Free Jewish children's books by mail, plus holiday guides, values activities, and read-aloud videos — built for the youngest readers.
pjlibrary.org ↗Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS)
Free, standards-aligned K–12 lessons on Judaism and ancient Israel, including the "3 B's" comparative-religion framework. C3-aligned and vetted.
icsresources.org ↗PBS LearningMedia
Free standards-aligned video and lesson resources, including world-religions and culture materials suitable for elementary classrooms.
pbslearningmedia.org ↗BimBam
Hundreds of free short animated videos on Jewish stories, holidays, and values — well-suited to a single-class pairing for K–5.
bimbam.com ↗Holocaust Museum Houston · Young Upstanders
For upper-elementary themes of community, kindness, and standing up to bullying — a state-recommended toolkit with K–2 and 3–5 lessons. (Upstander themes, not Holocaust instruction.)
hmh.org · Young Upstanders ↗Museum at Eldridge Street
Family tour video and printable coloring pages of a historic 1887 synagogue — a child-friendly companion to "what's inside a synagogue."
eldridgestreet.org ↗For virtual visits students can take from the classroom — historic synagogues, museums, and archaeological sites — see the Virtual Field Trips page, which includes K–5-appropriate tours.
- Library of Congress · Classroom Materials ↗
Primary-source sets with teacher guides — including units on Eastern European Jewish immigration and the founding-era Jewish communities of Newport and New York. Common Core and state-standards aligned.
- Smithsonian Learning Lab ↗
Six million digital resources across the Smithsonian's museums. Search "Jewish" for image-rich, curriculum-aligned material on Jewish American history, immigration, and world cultures.
- Britannica Kids ↗
The standard elementary reference in most school and library subscriptions, with an age-appropriate Jewish-content article suite (Judaism, Torah, Rosh Hashana, and more) for student research and teacher background.
- PBS LearningMedia · Judaism & World Religions ↗
Free K–12 collection covering Judaism alongside other world religions — the comparative-religions framing the standard K–5 social-studies curriculum already uses.
- PJ Library · book catalog & resources ↗
The PJ Library website is fully public: any teacher can use its holiday explainers, read-aloud videos, recipes, and book catalog (by topic, age, and holiday) without signing up. The single most useful public bibliography for K–5 Jewish content.
- Jewish American Heritage Month · Educator Resources ↗
The Weitzman National Museum's K–12 lesson hub, filterable by grade band and topic — the American Revolution, religious liberty, immigration, civic participation. Strong for American Jewish history.
- Texas (THGAAC) · Approved K–5 Lesson Plans ↗
A state commission's curated portal, open to any teacher. Includes Holocaust Museum Houston's Young Upstanders Toolkit and other K–5 plans focused on community, tolerance, and introducing Jewish identity. Consistent with USHMM guidance, it does not recommend explicit Holocaust instruction before grade six.
- Yad Vashem · age-appropriate Holocaust pedagogy ↗
Essential reading before any K–5 teacher introduces Holocaust-related content. The world's leading institution on Holocaust pedagogy sets out the principles: lead with empathy not history, use only true stories, never use simulations, end every lesson with closure, and keep parents and administrators informed.
- My Jewish Learning ↗
An online encyclopedia of Jewish life, history, and holidays — a good place to read up on a concept before teaching it.
Books · a K–5 reading arc
A starting library.
Seven books, ordered by grade band, each with three credentials in common: a major literary award (Caldecott, Newbery, Sydney Taylor, or starred trade reviews); a publisher-identified grade band; and documented use in public-school curricula. Each enters through a universal hook (family, friendship, immigration, American history, or courage) before delivering its Jewish content; none assumes the reader has ever set foot in a Jewish space.
Based on a Yiddish folk song: Joseph turns a worn overcoat into ever-smaller items — a jacket, a vest, a button — until the moral lands: you can always make something out of nothing. A cumulative read-aloud with die-cut pages.
A quilt made from the clothing of a Russian-Jewish family arriving in America passes from mother to daughter across four generations — a Sabbath tablecloth, a wedding canopy, a baby blanket. On the widely adopted Wit & Wisdom Grade 3 core-texts list.
Based on a documented Revolutionary War moment: General Washington meets a Polish-Jewish soldier lighting a menorah at Valley Forge and listens as the soldier explains Hanukkah. The American-history hook makes it a natural fit in any Revolution unit.
In Nazi-occupied Denmark, a young girl helps her family hide a Jewish mother and son until a boat can carry them to Sweden — and on a moonless night, the whole town whispers directions door to door to guide them to the harbor. A gentle first introduction to rescue.
Based on a real incident in WWII Warsaw: a girl who has escaped the ghetto helps resistance fighters smuggle food back inside, releasing feral cats to distract the Gestapo's dogs at the train station. A taut survival story in spare free verse.
The 1912 Lower East Side; five sisters; a year of family life across the Jewish calendar. Built for a reader who knows nothing about Jewish life — Mama and Papa explain each custom within the story, so the reader learns alongside the girls.
The 1943 rescue of Denmark's Jews, told through ten-year-old Annemarie as her family hides her best friend Ellen. The framing centers on rescue, not the camps — which is what makes it appropriate at this grade band. Preview with the teacher's own historical context.
A smaller shelf with a different purpose — stories where a Jewish child is just part of the world (a new friend, a new kid at school), not teaching the religion or a holiday. The Jewish character is simply present, the way children are present in any classroom.
A Jewish boy and a Muslim boy on one Brooklyn street, mistaken for twins, become friends — two kids with more in common than not.
A new neighbor moves in; the characters happen to be Jewish, never explained — the stories are for any child.
A half-Indian, half-Jewish girl changes schools and figures out where she fits.
A Jewish-Cuban immigrant girl in a diverse 1960s Queens, and the community that gathers around her.
For a much larger, regularly updated list, the Sydney Taylor Book Award and PJ Library are the trusted sources.
Virtual field trips · K–5
Take the class somewhere remarkable.
A short list of K–5-appropriate virtual tours and child-friendly online exhibitions — every one institutional, free, and suitable for projecting in a classroom. The full library, including 6–12 sites, lives on the Virtual Field Trips page.
- The Tenement Museum (New York) · Virtual Field Trips ↗
Live, educator-led visits into the restored apartments at 97 and 103 Orchard Street, where Jewish, Irish, Italian, and German immigrant families lived. K–2 sessions focus on family stories; 3–5 add primary-source documents. Free for Title I schools; fees scaled for others.
- ANU · Museum of the Jewish People (Tel Aviv) ↗
Image-rich online galleries of Jewish life across centuries and continents — Iraqi, Yemenite, Ethiopian, Indian, European, American — with sections built to introduce younger students to that diversity. Good for projecting.
- The Eldridge Street Synagogue (New York) · Family Tour & coloring pages ↗
A Family Tour video and printable coloring pages of the 1887 synagogue's stained-glass rose window — an excellent companion to "what's inside a synagogue."
- The Israel Museum (Jerusalem) · Family & school programs ↗
Virtual visits to the Shrine of the Book (the Dead Sea Scrolls), the Model of Second Temple Jerusalem, and the Jewish Art and Life Wing of synagogues, Torah arks, and ritual objects from communities worldwide.
- POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Warsaw) ↗
A virtual tour of the reconstructed painted wooden ceiling of the Gwoździec synagogue (rebuilt at POLIN by 300 volunteers), plus printable coloring pages and short animated videos for elementary audiences.
- The National Library of Israel · Treasures gallery ↗
High-resolution images of famous Hebrew manuscripts — illuminated Haggadot, early Hebrew printing — many with captions written at an upper-elementary reading level.
- The Anne Frank House (Amsterdam) · The Secret Annex Online ↗
An interactive 3D tour of the Secret Annex with framing for older elementary (grades 4–5). This sits at the older end of the range — preview first, consult the museum's teaching guide, and many teachers hold it for grade 5 or middle school.
Films & music · K–5
Watch and listen.
- PJ Library on YouTube ↗
Read-aloud videos of published PJ Library titles, holiday explainers, and music videos. Public channel, no signup.
- BimBam animated shorts ↗
Three-to-six-minute Hebrew Bible retellings (Noah, Joseph, Moses, David), holiday explainers, and a Judaism 101 series.
- Shalom Sesame (Sesame Workshop) ↗
Sesame Workshop's Jewish-content series — holidays, Hebrew basics, and life in Israel, with Grover. Teacher pre-screens.
Jewish music carries several traditions — Klezmer (Eastern European), Sephardi (post-1492 Mediterranean), Mizrahi (Middle Eastern and North African), cantorial, and modern Israeli and American folk. A single thirty-minute lesson can play one track from two or three.
- PJ Library Music ↗
A free collection of Jewish music for kids, organized by holiday and theme.
- Itzhak Perlman · In the Fiddler's House
The most accessible single recording for introducing Klezmer — Perlman with four leading Klezmer ensembles (EMI Classics, 1995). Widely available on standard streaming services.
Standards & how it fits
Where this fits the curriculum you already teach.
None of this asks for new instructional time. It fits the space K–5 social studies already gives to world cultures, communities, and traditions. The six topics map to the elementary frameworks most states use:
- World cultures & communities — the standard elementary social-studies strand on how different communities live, celebrate, and organize themselves.
- Comparative traditions — Jewish practice set beside the other traditions a class already studies, using a belief–behavior–belonging frame.
- Common Core ELA — read-alouds, informational text, and vocabulary, delivered through the books and stories above.
- Time, continuity & change — a people whose history stretches from antiquity to the present, across many lands.
If you teach K–5 and have a lesson, read-aloud, or activity that has worked in your classroom, we welcome it — write to editor@makorproject.org. Materials are reviewed and credited.
Several states — New Jersey, Illinois, and Texas among them — require Holocaust or genocide education at the elementary level. See Standards & Mandates for where it stands and how Makor aligns.