Education programs at the Center for Jewish History

The Center for Jewish History is home to five partner organizations: the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS), the American Sephardi Federation (ASF), the Leo Baeck Institute for the Study of German-Jewish History and Culture (LBI), the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (YIVO), and the Yeshiva University Museum (YUM). Explore the free educational resources and lesson plans for secondary school teachers about topics of more than three thousand years of Jewish history, culture, and heritage, along with recommendations by New York State agencies and national Jewish organizations.

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The Last Musician of Auschwitz: Lesson Plan and Additional Teaching Material
The film The Last Musician of Auschwitz shows how, in the most brutal and dehumanizing situations, music could offer a lifeline, a method of giving testimony, and even a way to resist. Woven throughout the film are new interpretations of musical works written by victims of the camp, mainly filmed at evocative locations in the environs of Auschwitz.

Based on the film, the Center Jewish History created lesson plans, film excerpts and additional teaching materials for classroom use. The film offers a unique opportunity to bring the lessons of the Holocaust to New York City secondary school students as it frames its message through the universally accessible language of music.

This project is the latest educational initiative produced by the Center Jewish History and the first in cooperation with Access Entertainment.

Special event for Educators

Teacher Professional Development: Introduction to the Lesson Plans and Teaching Materials for the film The Last Musician of Auschwitz

January 29, 2026,
Time: 3:30 – 5:00 PM
Online via Zoom

For more information and registration, please see here please see here.

CJH and Partner Resources

Curricular Materials

• Emma Lazarus Project: Explores the story of Emma Lazarus, a fifth-generation American Jew caught in an important turning point in American and Jewish History. (American Jewish Historical Society)
• 1938Projekt: Lesson plans for Middle and High School presented by the Leo Baeck Institute
• Theresienstadt: Lesson plans for High School presented by the Leo Baeck Institute
• YIVO Learning and Media Center:  Students learn about archives, Jewish history, and the value of primary sources. Presented by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
• The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience: Online pre-recorded courses for continuing learners focusing on less-studied aspects of Jewish history, Sephardic customs, Mizrahi culture and the arts.
• YUM Education: Yeshiva University Museum offers nationally recognized educational programs to provide students with a stimulating arts and history education as part of their school curriculum and to provide educators with innovative programs to enhance classroom learning.

Exhibitions

• Between Antisemitism and Activism: The Jewish University Experience in Historical Perspective (Center for Jewish History)
• How Jews Became Citizens: Highlights from the Sid Lapidus Collection (Center for Jewish History)
• Raphael Lemkin and the Quest to End Genocide (Center for Jewish History)
• The Vienna Model of Radicalization (Leo Baeck Institute)
• Last Stop Before the Last Stop: Theresienstadt 1942-1945 (Leo Baeck Institute)
• Beba Epstein:The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Girl (YIVO Institute for Jewish Research)
• Yitskhok Rudashevski: A Teenager’s Account of Life and Death in the Vilna Ghetto (YIVO Institute for Jewish Research)
• Sephardic Journeys (American Sephardi Federation)

Programs on Antisemitism Prior to World War II through Present Day

• The End of an Era? Jews and Elite Universities (Center for Jewish History)
• Addressing Antisemitism: Contemporary Challenges (Center for Jewish History)
• Fighting Fascism: Jewish Responses from the Interwar Period to the Present (Center for Jewish History & American Jewish Historical Society)
• Combating Antisemitism on Campus Through K-12 Jewish Identity Education (Center for Jewish History)
• Between Antisemitism and Activism: The Jewish University Experience in Historical Perspective (Center for Jewish History)
• White Noise, Panel discussion with director Daniel Lombroso (Center for Jewish History)
• Antisemitism as a Pillar of Fascism (Leo Baeck Institute)
• Book Talk - A Cold War Exodus (American Jewish Historical Society)
• Betty Ehrenberg @WJC & ASF’s Remembering the Forgotten Jewish Refugees: The Next Generation (American Sephardi Federation)
• A Haggadah from a Displaced Persons Camp | Treasures from the YIVO Collections  (YIVO Institute for Jewish Research)
• A Maimonidean in India: The Perils of Jewish Healing (Yeshiva University Museum & Center for Jewish History)

Anne Frank in History and Memory Program Series

• Anne Frank’s Diary: The Making of an Urtext of the Holocaust (Leo Baeck Institute)
• Anne’s Ancestors (Center for Jewish History & Leo Baeck Institute)
• The Many Lives of Anne Frank with Ruth Franklin
• When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary with Alice Hoffman
• The NYSED Anne Frank Administrator Day
• UnBroken Panel Discussion with Beth and Ginger Lane

New York State Recommended Resources

• Anti-Hate in Education Center Annual Convening on Antisemitism
• New York City Department of Education: Resources To Support Discussions About Antisemitism
• New York City Department of Education: Promoting Respect and Addressing Hate Crimes
• New York State Senate: Republican Conference – Antisemitism Working Group
• U.S. Department of State: Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism
• The White House: The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism