New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is offering several online resources for parents, teachers and students as the museum remains temporarily closed in accordance with COVID-19 social-distancing restrictions.
For parents and teachers, the museum offers a Holocaust curriculum complete with free, downloadable lesson plans about the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and Jewish heritage for a range of grades, along with links to artifacts, primary sources, videos and book recommendations.
On its daily blog, the museum will post an activity geared to a variety of ages that guide children in exploring heritage, family history and human connection, among other topics. The first activities in the series included “Interview a family member” and “Explore family heirlooms and photographs.”
The museum’s Coming of Age During the Holocaust, Coming of Age Now online curriculum is designed for students in middle grades and features the stories of 12 young people who survived the Holocaust and one woman who grew up in the British Mandate of Palestine during the same period.
The curriculum is divided into chapters that cover life before, during and after the war; video testimony; primary documents and artifacts; how each survivor’s life events line up with historical world events and more.
For younger children, the museum is streaming for free on its website the Emmy-winning short film “The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm,” which provides an introduction to the history of the Holocaust, and is accompanied by activities for elementary- and middle-school students.
