Program & Activity Ideas

If you would like to submit a program activity or idea please email Abby Schwartz.

Visit your local library or video store and check out a movie from this list to watch with your family and friends in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month.

• American Tail
• Bugsy
• Crossing Delancey
• Dirty Dancing
• Driving Miss Daisy
• Funny Girl
• Gentleman’s Agreement
• Hester Street
• Marjorie Morningstar
• The Chosen
• The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg
• The Jazz Singer
• The Way We Were
• Woody Allen films
• Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
• The First Basket: A Jewish Basketball Documentary

Visit your local library or bookstore for these great
books for adults:

• American Jewish History by Norman H. Finkelstein
• Jews in America by David Gantz
• From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books by Arie Kaplan
• The Jewish Americans: Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America by Beth Wenger
• Forged in Freedom: Shaping the Jewish-American Experience by Norman H. Finkelstein
• From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America, by Michael W. Grunberger (ed.), Hasia R. Diner (ed.), Leonard Dinnerstein (author), Eli Evans (author)
• American Judaism: A History by Jonathan Sarna

Visit your local library or bookstore for these
great children’s books:

• Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen
• Like a Maccabee by Barbara Bietz
• Portraits of Jewish American Heroes by Malka Drucker
• The Rebecca Books: American Girl by Jacqueline Dembar Greene
• When Zaydeh Danced on Eldridge Street by Elsa Okon Roel
• What Zeesie Saw on Delancey Street by Elsa Okon Roel
• The Yankee at the Seder by Elka Weber

Encourage your local library or bookstore to feature books about Jewish Americans during the month of May.

Organize a walking tour of Jewish sites in your community.

Conduct research in your temple or synagogue archives and plan a program in May to share your findings about the history of your congregation. Involve children and adults in the project.

Make up a Jewish American Heritage trivia contest in your workplace using Tell Me a Story and the Historical Timeline on this website. Here are a few questions to get you started:

• Which Jewish American wrote the song “God Bless America”?
• Which Yankee slugger was known as “The Kosher Bomber”?
• Who was the first Jewish woman to serve in the United States Congress?
• Which Jewish American invented blue jeans?
• Which Jewish American businesswoman launched the pink ribbon symbol as the universal emblem of breast health?