Emily Garr
Dedham
TEC Teaching American History
Title: Jewish Immigrants defining a Cultural Identity
Teacher: TBD
Grades(s): 10/11
#Students: TBD
Days of Class: 2 periods/ 70 minutes
Course/Subject: US History II
#withIEP,504 TBD
Enduring Understandings:
 Americans come from many places for many reasons.
 When people move they take their cultures with them.
 When people move they face challenges.
Essential Questions of THIS Lesson (series of Lessons)
1. In what ways has immigration shaped Boston?
2. In what ways has Boston shaped immigration to Boston?
3. How did Jewish immigrants reconcile their cultural Jewish identity with their new American identity?
Objectives of this Lesson, which support students being able to answer the Essential Question(s)


Students will understand Jewish Immigrants of Boston
Students will analyze the struggle of Jewish immigrants to acculturate and accommodate to the norms
and values of American society
Learning Standards Addressed (from MA Curriculum Frameworks or Local Standards)
USII.3 Describe the causes of the immigration of Southern and Eastern Europeans, Chinese, Koreans, and
Japanese to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and describe the major roles immigrants in
the industrialization of America (H)
USII.10 the major historical trends and events after World War I and throughout the 1920s. (H)
C. racial and ethnic tensions
Materials/Resources Needed
 Computer with LCD Projector (If necessary)
 smartboard
 Teacher designed notes/lecture
 Bintel Briefs chosen at the teachers discretion (Though from NYC they are reflective of daily Jewish life in
all cities)
 Modern day Newspapers and Magazines
Historical Thinking Skills Embedded in the Lesson:
Standard 2: Historical Comprehension
B. Identify the central question(s) the historical narrative addresses
C. Read historical narratives imaginatively
D. Evidence historical perspectives
Standard 3: Historical Analysis and Interpretation
A. Identify the author or source of the historical document or narrative
B. Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas, values, personalities, behaviours, and institutions
E. Analyze cause and effect relationships and multiple causation including the importance of the
individual, the influence of ideas and the role of chance.
J. Hypothesize the influence of the past
Standard 4: Historical Research Capabilities
C. Interrogate historical data
Standard 5: Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision-Making
A. Identify issues and problems in the past
B. Marshal evidence of antecedent circumstances and contemporary factors
C. Identify relevant historical antecedents
F. Evaluate the implementation of a decision.
Assessment/ Evidence of Learning [Performance Task(s) or Other]
In class:
Students will write a short reflection essay on the struggles over values that people had when acculturating in the
United States as immigrants.
Lesson Sequence
1. Activator: Students will brainstorm and discuss with a partner the issues that they struggle with as
teenagers today. The teacher should ask them to create a list of issues that teenagers struggle with the
most and what are the values at the root of the issue
o Example from a student- Dating and Sexual relationships: When should you first have sexual
relationships? The issue involved might be social pressures of your peers to date and begin a
sexual relationship as early as possible while the student may feel that because of
family/religious/ cultural values it is not appropriate.
The class will create a short list on the smart board with each group sharing an issue and what the internal
struggle would be.
2. The teacher will provide students with a brief historical background of Jewish Immigrants to the United
States during a 50 year period (roughly 1875-1925) including why they immigrated and what issues they
faced. Students will take notes on the issues that American Jews faced during this period.
3. The teacher will then provide students with primary source documents, The Bintel Briefs,
o Depending on length of each or topic the teacher will determine how many per pairing or student
(3-5/ 5-7)
4. Students will read the Bintel Briefs and identify the issue that each author is writing about and connect it
to the struggle that Jewish immigrants faced when acculturating to American values.
5. Students will write a reflection using their findings from modern advice columns and relate it to their own
struggles.
o The teacher should use the Advice Column Worksheet for homework
Closure (Summarize, Review, Homework, Preview Next Day)
Summarize- Students will complete a 3,2,1 for the day’s work and to help them focus on what they should
be looking for when completing the nights homework.
Homework/ Extension: Advice Column Reflection: Students will find examples of modern advice columns
and describe the issues that people are struggling with today. They will then use their findings to answer
the following question in short essay format. “How do people struggle today with acculturating and
accommodating to today’s American values? What similarities and differences do you find between
contemporary struggles and those of Immigrant Jews from the turn of the 20th century? How do you deal
with internal (your values) and external forces (peer/community/religious)? You must use 3 three specific
historical examples from the Bintel Briefs as evidence to support your findings.”
Additional Teacher Information & Resources:
The Teacher may refer to several websites for additional information and lesson plan ideas as well as the
research paper to create notes and present an appropriate background for students. The teacher should
focus on Boston Jewish History; there is a rich history dating back several hundred years however there is
a limited amount of
American Jewish Historical Society of Boston
http://ajhsboston.org/
the New England Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society.
JewishBoston.com
http://www.jewishboston.com/resources?fo=rac3
A compendium of contemporary and historical resources on Jewish Boston.
The Jewish Americans
http://www.pbs.org/jewishamericans is a three-night documentary that explores 350 years of Jewish
American history. JEWISH AMERICANS is a journey through time, from the first settlement in 1654 to the
present. It is about the struggle of a tiny minority who make their way into the American mainstream
while, at the same time, maintaining a sense of their own identity as Jews. Focusing on the tension
between identity and assimilation, THE JEWISH AMERICANS is quintessentially an American story, which
other minority groups will find surprisingly familiar”
Jewish History in Greater Boston: a Timeline
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/boston/eastboston/articles/2012/04/15/jewish_history_in_greater_boston_
a_timeline/
A timeline of important events in Boston.
Big Apple History
http://pbskids.org/bigapplehistory/life/topic12.html
While this is a site intended for a younger age it does provide a brief synopsis of Jewish American life in
the turn of the century
The Jewish Virtual Library
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0006_0_06269.html
The Jewish Virtual Library's purpose is to provide information about all facets of Jewish life: Judaism, Jews in the
Diaspora, the history of Anti-Semitism, the rise of Zionism and Zionist thought, biographies of prominent Zionists,
The Holocaust, Israel and Jerusalem, Israel's Wars, and Jewish holidays, Who is a Jew?
Bintel Brief Advice Column Reflection
This is a TRIPLE HW or 1 Quiz
Name: _____________________________________ Date:______________________________________
1. Find at least four (4) different advice columns where a person is writing about an issue that is causing them struggle
over the values of how they were raised with those of the values of peers or society. Identify the struggle of values
they are having and why it is a struggle in a short sentence. (attach each example to this paper) (5 points)
2. Answer the following question in a brief essay. Include an Intro body and conclusion(25 points)
How do people struggle today with acculturating and accommodating to today’s American values? What similarities
and differences do you find between contemporary struggles and those of Immigrant Jews from the turn of the 20 th
century? How do you deal with internal (your values) and external forces (peer/community/religious)? You must use 3
three specific historical examples from the Bintel Briefs as evidence to support your findings.”
http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/excerpts/sarna_boston.pdf
http://vimeo.com/52253670
http://planningboston.org/people/jews/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0004_0_03377.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/01/us/bit-of-boston-s-jewish-pride-isrevived.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
http://jgsgb.org/pdfs/Jewish_Settlement_Patterns_MA.pdf