Section archive - Learning Resources

“Shaboom!,”an animated web series premiering on April 6, 2016, from non-profit G-dcast, combines the best elements of children’s television with wisdom from the Jewish tradition to teach everyday values to children through magic, comedy and silly songs. Each of the ten children’s episodes is accompanied by a separate video for parents that delves into the episode’s value, explaining “what’s Jewish” about it, and giving parents the knowledge and confidence to model the values for their children. The show was designed to showcase strategies for bringing the family closer together, and through using best practices from the secular parenting world about fostering the social and emotional learning that is key in early child development.

The six apps reviewed here exemplify best practices in the nascent field of Holocaust education apps, particularly those that illustrate a constructivist approach, one that places students at the center of the educational experience and encourages active learning. Interacting with survivors in the classroom and online has provided students with this opportunity until now, but as the witnesses pass away, teachers can turn to digital technology to offer another form of interactive engagement. Designed for today’s generation, these apps reflect our awareness that knowledge is constructed from and shaped by experience.

The Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education, in collaboration with the UJA Federation of New York, announces the launch of Peoplehood Toolkit 3.0. The focus of version 3.0 is on concrete and practical tools for educators and community activists at large. These new additions will enable Jewish educational institutions and educators to integrate Peoplehood themes into the existing program and curriculum, and community activists to nurture collective Jewish responsibility in their communities; to teach and engage with Peoplehood, and in the process turn Peoplehood education from an abstract conceptual field to a practical and concrete discipline.

On January 27, 1945, Soviet forces liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, discovering the largest Nazi killing center in Europe. Auschwitz has become a symbol of the Holocaust, representing the depths of man's inhumanity to man. Eighteen governments have legislated January 27 as an annual Holocaust Memorial Day. In November 2005, the United Nations passed a resolution to mark January 27 as an international day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Holocaust, and urged member states to develop educational programs to impart the memory of this tragedy to future generations. Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies will be organized on the international, national, regional and local levels, including in universities and schools. This Yad Vashem Mimi-site contains educational materials ahead of this date in multiple languages.