Jewish Neighborhood Voices Educational Resources

Developed through a Community Impact Grant from Combined Jewish Philanthropy and classroom visits to local schools, synagogues, and teen programs in 2024-2025, these Jewish Neighborhood Voices Educational Resources are for educators looking to bring oral history and place-based learning into the classroom.  

Together, these oral histories provide a full picture of a particular time, place, and community. If you are interested in teaching about immigration, Jewish heritage and culture, the evolution of urban neighborhoods over time, intercommunity relationships, World War II and the Holocaust—and more—the "Jewish Neighborhood Voices" oral history project contains rich stories and first-hand accounts that personalize these historical topics in compelling ways for students. We offer these lesson plans and resources to bring them into your classrooms. 

As you explore these materials, do questions and/or ideas come up for you? We would love to hear from you! Some questions we have and hope to build on are: 

• What other voices should be part of this story?
• What other stories should be in conversation with those from our narrators? 

We ask these questions in the classroom, as it can help students understand the importance of a community’s narrative—and what might lie beyond it—but also to look for opportunities to partner and expand these resources. 
 

With special appreciation for Ianne Sherry and Christian Kelley, who brought Jewish Neighborhood Voices into their classrooms and used those visits to create lesson plans (that you can explore here!)