May is Jewish American Heritage Month
The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of Jewish Americans who have helped form the fabric of American history, culture and society.
From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America
From Haven to Home is a Library of Congress online exhibition marking 350 years of Jewish life in America. The 2004 exhibition featured more than two hundred treasures of American Judaica from the collections of the Library of Congress, augmented by a selection of important loans from other cooperating cultural institutions.
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Image Credit: [Food will win the war - You came here seeking freedom, now you must help to preserve it - Wheat is needed for the allies - waste nothing] / C. E. Chambers. (Library of Congress)
Yiddish American Popular Sheet Music
The majority of the selections found in this Library of Congress collection originated in the Yiddish theater, which thrived in the Bowery area of the Lower East Side of New York City from the 1880s into the mid-twentieth century, and which expanded into a network of theaters in Jewish communities around the country. Also found are popular-style arrangements of folk songs and sacred songs as well as instrumental numbers.
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Image credit: Farewell my dear parents Jewish folk song. Published by Joseph P. Katz, New York, New York, 1920. (Library of Congress)
Resources from the National Endowment for the Humanities
Each May, EDSITEment celebrates Jewish American Heritage Month by pointing to the rich array of educational resources on the history of the Jewish people in America. Many of the programs and websites highlighted have been funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities over the past decades.
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Image Credit: Screen capture from “City of Immigrants” interactive, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Leonard Bernstein Collection
Leonard Bernstein, arguably the most prominent figure in American classical music of the second half of the twentieth century, made his impact as a conductor, as a composer of classical and theater music, and as an educator. The online collection makes available a significant selection of correspondence both to and from Bernstein, musical sketches for several of his major works, writings, including the scripts for his Young People's Concerts, Thursday Evening Previews, Omnibus, and Ford Presents, his scrapbooks, photographs, and audio-visual materials.
Explore the online collection »
Image credit: Leonard Bernstein, half-length portrait, facing right, seated at piano, making annotations to musical score / World Telegram & Sun photo by Al. Ravenna. Photograph. Library of Congress.
For Teachers
Put the power of primary sources to work in the classroom. Browse ready-to-use lesson plans, student activities, collection guides and research aids.
Educational Resources »
Image Credit: Jewish refugee children, enroute to Philadelphia aboard liner President Harding, waving at the Statue of Liberty (Library of Congress)
2019 Event Highlights
Book Talk
May 2
The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught in Between
In “The Unwanted,” Michael Dobbs tells the powerful story of German Jews from the village of Kippenheim who sought American visas to escape Nazi Germany. He also recounts America's response to the refugee crisis of the 1930s and 1940s. Only one in four of the villagers managed to gain entry to the U.S. or another country; the remainder perished in French camps or, later, in Auschwitz
(National Archives and Records Administration)
Book Talk
May 6
Joining the Club: A History of Jews and Yale
The Hebraic Section of the African & Middle Eastern Division (Library of Congress) and the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington present Dan A. Oren, M.D., Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Oren will speak about his book “Joining the Club: A History of Jews and Yale.”
(Library of Congress)
Film Screening
May 6
GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II
The National Archives in partnership with Park University (Parkville, MO) will host a film screening of GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II. Reservations are requested for this free program.
(National Archives and Records Administration)
Book Talk
May 23
America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today
Pamela Nadell, American University history professor and author of “America's Jewish Women,” weaves together stories of a diverse group of extraordinary people. For more than two centuries scores of these activists, suffragists, wives, and mothers have helped carve out a Jewish American identity.
View on Youtube.
(National Archives and Records Administration)
Daily Exhibition
Daily
Americans and the Holocaust
What did Americans know? What more could have been done? This exhibition is a portrait of American society that shows how the Depression, isolationism, xenophobia, racism, and antisemitism shaped responses to Nazism and the Holocaust. It reveals how much information was available to Americans at the time and asks why rescuing Jews did not become a priority, except for a few individuals who took the risk to help.
(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
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