Educational Program for Schools

We are pleased to present the Museum of the History of Polish Jews’ Educational Program for the 2013/2014 school year. We hope that you will find it interesting, innovative and instructive, and that you and your students will share this learning experience with us.

The program has been divided into five subject areas, with workshops for elementary, middle and high schools offered within the framework of each topic.

Topic I: Jewish Ways of Sanctifying Time Workshops devoted to the Jewish life cycle.

1. The Most Important Day – the Sabbath (Shabbat)
2. The Cycle of Life – Jewish Holidays and Traditions
3. The Zodiac – a Jewish Interpretation (for elementary schools only)

Topic II: Jewish Religion, Traditions and Learning Introduction to the principles of Judaism as well as the scientific and literary achievements of Jews.

1. Let’s Make a Museum – Portraits of Poets (for elementary schools only)
2. Aleph-beis – Yiddish Literary Workshops
3. Aleph-beit – Learn a New Alphabet (for elementary schools only)
4. Beit Yehudi – the Jewish Home Throughout the Ages
5. Biblical Stories, Midrashim, Haggadot, Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends

Topic III: Jewish Places – the Jewish World A presentation of the geography of the Jewish world and its material heritage.

1. Building a Shtetl (for elementary schools only)
2. A Map of the Jewish World
3. From the Diary of an Emigrant
4. Ancient Israel (for middle schools only)
5. Reading the Jewish World (for middle and high schools only)

Topic IV: Polin – the Thousand-Year History of Polish Jews Workshops showing the complexity of the history of Jews in Poland, including its most tragic chapter – the Holocaust.

1. First Encounters – Jews in Piast and Jagiellonian Poland
2. Promised Land – the Incredible Story of Łódź
3. The Destruction of the Jewish People
4. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – a Cultural and Religious Mosaic (for middle and high schools)
5. From Joselewicz to Anielewicz – the Jewish Fight for the Republic (for middle schools only)
6. Holocaust – Shoah (for middle schools only)
7. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in the eyes of fighters and witnesses – based on video testimonies from USC SFI
8. The Archaeology of Legend (for high schools only)
9. Jews – Citizens of the II Republic (for high schools only)
10. Jews in the Polish People’s Republic – Victims, Witnesses or Beneficiaries of the System?
(for high schools only)
11. The Right to a Motherland 1968-1995 – the Anti-Semitic Campaign of 1968 through the Eyes of an Emigrant (for middle and high schools only)
12. Small in Number, Large in Presence. Polish Jews after 1989 (for high schools only)

Topic V: Civic Education and Countering Discrimination The aim of these workshops is to shape civic attitudes of openness among young people and to empower them to oppose all forms of discrimination, racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia.

1. Ala from a primer – only life counts
2. Holocaust in the ayes of children – based on testimonies from USC SFI
3. Are Privileges all there is to Democracy? (for elementary schools only)
4. People have always Differed – “Let’s Celebrate Together”
5. The Jews – Part of Polish Heritage
6. The Polish Republic – Our Common Home (for middle and high schools only)
7. Anti-Semitism – Our Problem? (for middle and high schools only)
8. Bridge over the Wadi – the Israeli-Palestinian Bridge to Conquer Hate (for high schools only)

All workshops offered as part of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews’ educational program are in line with the official ministry curriculum guidelines for Polish schools. They involve different teaching methods as well as an active, “hands-on” approach.

In addition, we offer a program of educational guided tours around Jewish Warsaw, addressed to school groups from Warsaw and other parts of Poland.

1. “Warsaw is Mine and I am Hers.” Janusz Korczak’s Warsaw
2. “Life in a Jar.” Irena Sendler’s Warsaw
3. Julian Tuwim’s Warsaw
4. “Mr. Hilary” Searching for Traces of Julian Tuwim in Warsaw. A Detective Walk
5. The Small Ghetto
6. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
7. In the Footsteps of the Heroes of Hanna Krall’s To Outwit God
8. Daily Life in the Warsaw Ghetto
9. Discover the Museum of the History of Polish Jews and Memorial Sites in Muranów

General Information

The program offer is valid for the period from September 16th, 2013, until June 28th, 2014. Admission to all workshops is free.

Workshops

All workshops take place at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews Education Center at 6 Anielewicza St. in Warsaw, Poland.

Workshops are held on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at: 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM.

The duration of each workshop is 90 minutes. Maximum number of participants: 30 students. Reservations: +48 22 47 10 301 or [email protected]. Reservations should be made at least two weeks prior to the planned visit to the Museum. The Museum of the History of Polish Jews has wheelchair access.

Guided tours

Educational guided tours take place outside of the Museum and begin at specified locations.

Tours are offered on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 9.00 AM – 12.00 PM, 12.00 PM – 3.00 PM.

The duration of each tour is 180 minutes (they may be shortened depending on the needs of the group). Maximum number of participants: 30 students. Reservations: +48 22 47 10 301 or by e-mail: [email protected]. Reservations should be made at least two weeks prior to the planned visit to the Museum.