The Years in Question
This war was fought from 1775-1783.
What was the American Revolution?
After escaping British imprisonment in New York, where he was sentenced to death for spying, this Polish-born Jewish immigrant moved to Philadelphia and became a critical financial agent for the Patriot cause during the American Revolution.
Who was Hayim Solomon?
An original, first-hand account or physical artifact created during the time period under study by participants or witnesses. For example, it could be a letter, diary, photograph, official record, building, or object from daily life.
What is a primary source?
Like other Jewish people who owned slaves and were enslavers, Judah P. Benjamin, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the Confederacy who served as Secretary of War and State, lived in a way that contradicted the themes of freedom and liberation celebrated during this Jewish holiday.
What is Passover?
This issue connected the costly French and Indian War to the growing colonial anger that sparked the American Revolution, as Britain tried to make colonists help pay war debts.
What are taxes?
This war was fought between 1754-1763.
What is the French and Indian War, or the 7 Years War that was really 9 years?
Born in Prague in 1838, this man immigrated to Galveston, Texas early in life and made a living protecting convoys on the American frontier. An Abolitionist, he assisted the Underground Railroad before the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 when he moved to Massachusetts to volunteer for the Union Army.
Who was Leopold Karpeles?
A document, book, or article created after an event by someone who did not experience it firsthand by interpreting or analyzing primary sources. Common examples include history books, scholarly articles, and biographies.
What is a secondary source?
Who is Queen Esther and what is Purim?
From the colonial period through the American Civil War, this system was as a central and continuous force - we could call it a through line - shaping personal rights, law, economy and money, and conflict in the United States.
What is slavery?
This war was fought from 1861-1865.
What was the American Civil War?
Writing and preaching in German, this rabbi denounced slavery as a moral evil, rebutting the pro-slavery theology of Rabbi Morris Jacob Raphall. In April 1861, after preaching a sermon against slavery, he was driven out of Baltimore by a pro-slavery mob.
Who was Rabbi David Einhorn?
The study, interpretation, and story of the human past based on evidence. It analyzes change over time, focusing on human actions, decisions, and behavior to understand how the past has shaped the present.
What is history?
For Jewish Americans living during the American Revolution, this holiday's story of resistance against tyranny and the struggle for religious freedom echoed the colonies’ fight for independence from Britain.
What is Chanukah?
From the contested borders of the 1750s through the era of westward expansion in the 1800s, this central issue shaped the Indigenous experience in North America, as Native nations repeatedly faced displacement, broken treaties, and military conflict over territory.
What is the Land and Who Controls It?
(Or something similar)
This period of widespread social activism and political reform in the United States spanned roughly from the 1890s to the 1920s.
What was The Progressive Era?
This woman who lived from 1810–1892 was a Polish-born American suffragist, abolitionist, and freethinker. She worked alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to fight for married women's property rights, abolition, and gender equality.
Who was Ernestine Louise Rose?
This is the process of comparing multiple, independent sources to verify information, establish reliability, and build a stronger, more accurate argument. It involves identifying points of agreement across documents, artifacts, or accounts to confirm that a historical event or claim is credible.
What is corroborating evidence?
The American Civil War effectively ended on April 9th, 1865. A Jewish holiday began on April 10th, and President Abraham Lincoln was shot on April 14th and died on April 15th. That meant that many of the first eulogies, speeches about President Lincoln after his death, were made at these.
What are Passover seders or Festival Days?
From the multilingual realities of early North America where Indigenous languages, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, and English all shaped colonial life, to the wave of Jewish immigration between 1880 and 1910, debates over citizenship, assimilation, and cultural difference repeatedly raised this central question about identity and belonging in the United States.
What is "Who Counts as an American?"
This amendment was ratified in 1920 granting white women the right to vote. Black women and men would not secure the right to vote until 1965 with the Voting Rights Act.
What is the 19th Amendment?
This woman who lived from 1882–1972 was a Polish-born American socialist, labor union leader, and feminist. As a top leader of the Women’s Trade Union League and advisor to FDR, she championed safety regulations, suffrage, and the New Deal. She is famous for the phrase, "The worker must have bread, but she must have roses too!"
Who was Rose Schneiderman?
A consistent, underlying theme, narrative, or connection that links a variety of events, figures, or eras, and can explain how the past shapes the present.
What is a through line?
By the early 1900s, American synagogues often held large public celebrations of this holiday, featuring shofars and sermons about citizenship and moral renewal.
What is Rosh HaShanah?
When Rose Schneiderman said this, she meant that workers needed a living wage, safe working conditions, and reasonable work hours and that they ALSO need good education and recreational opportunities.
What are bread and roses OR "The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too!"