The Makor Project · K–5 Lesson · Handout

One People, Many Homes

Jewish Communities Around the World · Grades 3–4

How to use this map

  1. Each numbered dot marks a place where Jewish communities have lived for a long time.
  2. Find each number in the key below the map. Read what makes that community special.
  3. Color each region a different color, and circle the one you would most like to learn more about.
North America South America Europe Africa Asia Oceania 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 · United States — one of the biggest Jewish communities today, made of families who came here from every other place on this map.
2 · Spain — long ago a great community lived here. After they had to leave in 1492, they carried their own language, Ladino, all around the Mediterranean Sea.
3 · Poland — for hundreds of years the largest community, with its own language (Yiddish), lively klezmer music played on the clarinet and violin, and foods like challah.
4 · Morocco — a North African community famous for sweet honey pastries, drums and singing at celebrations, and beautiful old synagogues you can still visit.
5 · Ethiopia — a community in the Horn of Africa that kept Jewish traditions for a very long time, far from all the others, with its own special holidays.
6 · Iraq — one of the oldest Jewish communities anywhere — families have lived here for more than 2,500 years, known for date cookies and old prayer melodies.
7 · Yemen — famous for beautiful silver jewelry made by hand, special songs, and a way of saying Hebrew kept carefully for hundreds of years.
★ Your pick: circle the community you would most like to learn more about.
★ Think about it: These families lived very far apart, spoke different languages, and ate different foods. What did they all share? (Hint: one history, the same holidays, and being one people — many homes.)