Words to Know

A very large, very old group that shares a story, a homeland, a language, and its own customs. Like a giant family. The Jewish people are one of the oldest peoples in the world.

The place a people comes from. For the Jewish people it is the land of Israel. Families who lived far away for hundreds of years still told stories about it and kept it in their songs.

The ancient language of the Jewish people. For a long time it was read and written but almost never spoken at home. In the 1880s a boy grew up speaking it again, and now millions do.

Something a family or a people does the same way, year after year, and passes on to the children. A holiday meal, a song, a braided bread, a story told every spring.

A picture made of many small pieces. The pieces are all different. Together they make one picture. A people is a little like a mosaic.

Being part of a group. You belong to your family, your class, your town. Jewish children in Ethiopia, China, and New York all belong to the same people, even though they have never met.

The Hebrew word for bicycle. It was built from ofan, an ancient word for "wheel," made into a pair: two wheels. A brand-new word made out of a very old one.

A round red fruit with one skin and hundreds of seeds inside. Many Jewish families eat it on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. In this lesson it is the shape of the class picture: many pieces, one picture.