Begin by asking students to reflect on the following questions. Read each question one at a time and allow students time to record their answers in a notebook.

• How do I define and express my identity?
• How does my identity influence my life?
• How do I feel when people challenge my concept of myself?
• Have I ever experienced judgements or assumptions about my identity from others?

After you have read out all of the questions, ask students if anyone would like to share their responses to any of the questions.

Print out copies of the handout “A Picture of Jewish Life in Europe Before WWII” from Echoes & Reflections. Encourage students to underline, highlight, or annotate on the worksheet.

Ask students to write a small summary of the information they gathered from each heading (A Time of Challenges, Modernization, Rising Antisemitism and Nationalism, and Jewish Reactions).

As a class, ask students the following questions which they could gather from the reading.

1. How did Jewish customs and culture distinguish them from their non-Jewish counterparts?
2. How did Jewish culture adapt over time?
3. What was the impact of rising antisemitism and nationalism?
4. What was the response among Jews?

Lastly, discuss how Jewish identity had transformed and been impacted by the communities in which they lived. You may choose to return to the essential questions section to engage in this dialogue.

Ask students what it means to be an oppressed group. Can you think of some groups throughout history that faced oppression?

Walk students through the resource, Antisemitism in History: The Early Modern Era, 1300-1800 by the United Stated Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Then ask your students, why do people generalize characteristics for an entire group? How can this be dangerous? Take a few minutes to discuss this as a class before moving on.

Next, pull up the resource, Book Burning by the USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia and go over the Critical Thinking Questions at the bottom of the page.

In groups of five, ask students to consider the following question:

1. What tends to follow acts of oppression? Does it always lead to violence? What about revolution?
2. What are some ways you can think of to counter prejudice and oppression?

Ask students to define prejudice. Ask them about the sources of prejudice. Is prejudice always taught within families, or can institutions also teach prejudice? Although this reading focuses on religion, teachers should name a number of institutions in the general discussion, such as religion, schools, government, and medicine.

Explain the concept of the Blood Libel to students. The blood libel refers to the false allegation that Jews used the blood of non-Jewish, usually Christian children, for ritual purposes. You can provide a brief overview of blood libel using Holocaust Encyclopedia – Blood libel.

Explain that the document you are about to share is antisemitic and spreads lies about Jews. Pull up the primary resource, Proclamation Inciting a Jewish Pogrom (1903) and continue to the Output section.

The output for this lesson is done as a whole class, to avoid printing out an antisemitic text and having a student leave with it. As a class, highlight the lies about Jews in this document on the screen. Then ask students, How does the text justify violence against Jews? Using a different color, highlight the calls to violence in the document. Ask students what the date of the document (1903) shows us about the Holocaust.