sunday june 28
Essential Question: What does it mean to be an American Jew?
9AM – 10:15 Breakfast, Welcome, and Introductions
Group will introduce themselves to each other using their own object stories completed as the pre-assignment.
10:15 – 11:45 Outside the Home Neighborhood Walking Tour
During this walking tour, educators will explore the Lower East Side neighborhood to gain a context for the age of Jewish immigration.
12PM – 1PM Lunch Activity
Teachers will connect the past and present of the neighborhood history as they enjoy lunch at local restaurant and consider: how does food/foodways become a lens on the past, as well as a way to understanding the present story of immigration?
1:15PM – 1:45 Walking Tour Debrief
2:15PM – 3:15 Sweatshop Workers Tour
Participants visit 97 Orchard Street to learn how two Jewish families that lived there during the great wave of immigration. As they learn about the jobs the Levine and Rogarshevsky families found in the garment industry, they will consider how work influences a family home, cultural traditions, and social lives.
3:15 – 3:30 Break
3:30-4:30: Scholar Talk
Dr. Annie Polland provides historic overview of the Lower East Side exploring: How did immigration and resettlement on the Lower East Side challenge European lifestyles and ideals? How did East European Jews handle a six-day workweek that often involved Saturday work? The talk will also consider how in spite of great change, including economic challenges and secular opportunities, we can see how immigrant families used life cycle events and holidays to preserve and adapt Jewish religion and culture.
6:00 – 8:00 Group Dinner
Join fellow participants for an optional group dinner at Russ & Daughters. As you get to know each other, we will further explore the complex relationship surrounding food and identity.
9AM – 10:15 Breakfast, Welcome, and Introductions
Group will introduce themselves to each other using their own object stories completed as the pre-assignment.
10:15 – 11:45 Outside the Home Neighborhood Walking Tour
During this walking tour, educators will explore the Lower East Side neighborhood to gain a context for the age of Jewish immigration.
12PM – 1PM Lunch Activity
Teachers will connect the past and present of the neighborhood history as they enjoy lunch at local restaurant and consider: how does food/foodways become a lens on the past, as well as a way to understanding the present story of immigration?
1:15PM – 1:45 Walking Tour Debrief
2:15PM – 3:15 Sweatshop Workers Tour
Participants visit 97 Orchard Street to learn how two Jewish families that lived there during the great wave of immigration. As they learn about the jobs the Levine and Rogarshevsky families found in the garment industry, they will consider how work influences a family home, cultural traditions, and social lives.
3:15 – 3:30 Break
3:30-4:30: Scholar Talk
Dr. Annie Polland provides historic overview of the Lower East Side exploring: How did immigration and resettlement on the Lower East Side challenge European lifestyles and ideals? How did East European Jews handle a six-day workweek that often involved Saturday work? The talk will also consider how in spite of great change, including economic challenges and secular opportunities, we can see how immigrant families used life cycle events and holidays to preserve and adapt Jewish religion and culture.
6:00 – 8:00 Group Dinner
Join fellow participants for an optional group dinner at Russ & Daughters. As you get to know each other, we will further explore the complex relationship surrounding food and identity.
MONDAY JUNE 29
Essential Question: How does identity change over time?
9AM – 10:30 Tour of the Eldridge Street Synagogue
Meet at the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue located at 12 Eldridge Street (between Canal and Division Streets) for a tour that examines the site as a place where immigrants created an American religious lifestyle. Whereas we view this synagogue as a historic site, the emphasis of the tour will be to understand it as new and as an experiment. As the first East European Jewish purpose-built synagogue, they were involved in carving out a new way of being Jewish. Over time, Jews used this site in a variety of ways.
10:30 – 10:45 Walk back to the Tenement Museum
11AM – 12:30 Meet Victoria Tour
During this living history program, educators interact with Victoria Confino, a 14-year-old immigrant from Greece who lives at 97 Orchard Street in 1916. As they ask Victoria questions, they learn about the universal immigrant experience of starting your life over and consider how the Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jewish experience connect.
12:30PM – 1 Lunch
Lunch will be ordered in.
1PM – 2PM Your Story, Our Story
Presentation on new museum initiative surrounding the collection of object stories. Following a site-overview, teachers break into groups to consider how this project could be woven into a curriculum on Jewish identity.
2PM – 2:15 Coffee Break
2:15 – 3:45 Affinity Groups
Groups will get together to brainstorm how the workshop components (tours, primary sources, content, website resources etc.) can impact their curriculum and the ways they teach American Jewish identity using the Lower East Side as a model.
4PM – 5PM Workshop Wrap-Up
Workshop reflection and Evaluations.
9AM – 10:30 Tour of the Eldridge Street Synagogue
Meet at the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue located at 12 Eldridge Street (between Canal and Division Streets) for a tour that examines the site as a place where immigrants created an American religious lifestyle. Whereas we view this synagogue as a historic site, the emphasis of the tour will be to understand it as new and as an experiment. As the first East European Jewish purpose-built synagogue, they were involved in carving out a new way of being Jewish. Over time, Jews used this site in a variety of ways.
10:30 – 10:45 Walk back to the Tenement Museum
11AM – 12:30 Meet Victoria Tour
During this living history program, educators interact with Victoria Confino, a 14-year-old immigrant from Greece who lives at 97 Orchard Street in 1916. As they ask Victoria questions, they learn about the universal immigrant experience of starting your life over and consider how the Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jewish experience connect.
12:30PM – 1 Lunch
Lunch will be ordered in.
1PM – 2PM Your Story, Our Story
Presentation on new museum initiative surrounding the collection of object stories. Following a site-overview, teachers break into groups to consider how this project could be woven into a curriculum on Jewish identity.
2PM – 2:15 Coffee Break
2:15 – 3:45 Affinity Groups
Groups will get together to brainstorm how the workshop components (tours, primary sources, content, website resources etc.) can impact their curriculum and the ways they teach American Jewish identity using the Lower East Side as a model.
4PM – 5PM Workshop Wrap-Up
Workshop reflection and Evaluations.