Section archive - Learning Resources

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is launching a “citizen history” project to examine Holocaust coverage during the 1930s and 1940s in local newspapers throughout the United States. Information about Nazi persecution and murder of Jews and others was available to the American public as it happened. This project will provide insight into how Americans—from ordinary citizens to the president—understood the threat of Nazism, perceived responsibility to respond to the Nazis’ expansionist and murderous goals, and dealt with the challenges that influenced response options. “Citizen historians” will be asked to engage in primary research using online databases, microfilm, and/or hardcopies of newspapers in local libraries, universities, and historical societies, and submit their resulting research data into a centralized online database.

BetaMidrash is a free Android app using open-source online Jewish texts crowdsourced from Sefaria – an incredible platform in its own right which I plan to feature in a future post. BetaMidrash combines an attractive interface complete with Hebrew texts and translations, embedded commentaries when available, a powerful search engine, and downloaded texts so that the app continues to work even with a minimal data connection. What I did not realize when I first started using BetaMidrash after it was launched in April 2015–and quickly fell in love with it–was that this app was created by two electrical engineering students at Cooper Union.

Of the many lessons of the Chanukah story, the importance of faith, is one of the most significant for students today. One way to teach this theme is with multimedia presentations provided by TorahLive. TorahLive provides teachers with high quality video productions, which excite and motivate students of all denominations and all ages. The films communicate Jewish values in a non-preachy, well organized, and energetic manner and speak in the language of today’s youth.

Jacob Richman published a rich updated listing of Chanukah educational and fun sites to help schools, youth groups and families learn about and enjoy the Chanukah Festival, including hundreds of websites, videos, trivia, clipart and more.