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.

Ask students if they know what antisemitism is, and why it’s relevant today.

Read the sections of the article by the ADL on antisemitism throughout history titled “Islamic World” and “Medieval Christendom” as a class (a unit on antisemitism more broadly could use more of the article).

Lead a class discussion on the material. Ask students:

1. What surprises you about what we’ve learned?
2. Why do you think Jews were a target of hatred and violence?
3. Why do you think people were willing to believe such hateful things?
4. Why do you think antisemitism is still an issue today?

Explain that historically, anti-Jewish sentiment was a common phenomenon in the Western, Christian sphere for over a millennia. Jews were often limited in their livelihoods and where they were allowed to reside. The medieval period in particular – a time of religious crusades and conquest – was full of anti-Jewish rumours, sentiment, and action. Jews were thought to be responsible for the crucifixion, and the idea of Blood Libel (Jewish slaughter of Christian children for religious rituals) was born. At the same time, ill-treatment of Jews was not always met with sympathy. Similar to today, there were people who disapproved of the hatred and violence they faced.

Share this image of a Medieval tax record with students. Tax records didn’t usually have pictures, but this one did. These records were documents that listed tax payments and this document records the payments made by Jewish people in the city of Norwich in Norfolk, England.

Lead the class in a short discussion about the image. Ask students what they see and what the various symbols might mean. This guide by the National Archives will help you to highlight certain aspects of the image. Help students to correctly interpret the image as anti-Jewish.

Begin by prompting your students to think about forms of intolerance. What kind of ‘isms’ can they think of that separate one group from another in a detrimental way?

Do they believe that certain ‘isms’ are more powerful than others? Why might this be?

This lesson can be found in an expanded form here.
Divide students into groups or pairs.
Distribute the first definition card within this three page bundle, which defines the terms ideology, racists and ethnicity.
In groups, pairs, or individually students work to define the yellow highlighted words. After the group defines the word, they use dictionaries to check their definitions.
After 5 minutes come together and have students briefly share:

1. How their definitions of highlighted words were similar/different to the dictionary.
2. If defining the highlighted words increased their understanding of the definitions of ideology, racists, and race.

Pivot toward the question of pseudoscience: Now that we have definitions of racists and race, let’s examine the pseudo science behind beliefs that human behavior is biologically determined. See if they know what pseudo means.

Distribute and read definition cards two and three which defines pseudo, science and racial antisemitism.
–> Students can repeat the definitional activity used with the first definition cards for the second and third cards as well..
Check for understanding of the concept of pseudoscience and racial antisemitism.
Answer questions or clear misconceptions before proceeding.

Watch this short clip from USHMM about racism in the Nazi party. Then ask students to respond to the following questions either in writing or small groups before opening up for a large group discussion. You may also assign certain questions to groups or individuals to reduce the time for responses.

1. At the beginning of the video, the narrator remarks that the Nazis “wanted to create a racially pure Germany”. What about this statement is already a red flag, given what you know about race?
2. During the Nazi era, racial science was taught in schools, and this helped create a youth that was complicit with the racism that Nazi’s were promoting. Why were such violent biases taught to young people in school?
3. Sometimes people claim something as “scientific” to make it sound legitimate, even if it is patently false. Why is the legitimizing stamp of science so important?
4. How can racism help keep a party or political group in power?
5. Despite overwhelming scientific data to the contrary, many people still believe in the superiority of certain races. Why might individuals hold onto a belief that has been discredited because it’s not factually true? How might they change their minds?
6. What information do racists use to justify their beliefs? How can radical beliefs, like these, be challenged and countered?

Provide students with a brief overview of the Dreyfus Affair. A presentation with important dates and facts can be found here. Go over this with your students if you feel it necessary and time permits.

In brief, explain to students that Alfred Dreyfus was accused of stealing military secrets with weak evidence and was sentenced to prison. Tell students that the document they will be reading is a newspaper article written by a Dreyfus supporter, Emile Zola, who accused the French military of a conspiracy against Dreyfus.

Read through the translation of J’Accuse! provided by the University of Pennsylvania Library as a class.

As you read together collectively, ask students to take notes utilizing the 3Ps Method; taking note of things they find a) Powerful b) Puzzling and c) Propelling.

Once you’ve finished reading, attempt to clarify the sections that students found puzzling.

In order to familiarize yourself, and your class with this model, please look over this guide: 3Ps: A Critical Reading Guide.

Divide students into pairs or groups of three before directing them to the Reading Road Map questions at the bottom of the reading. Give students approximately 10-15 minutes to jot down their answers.

After everyone has had a chance to write down their answers, go over the questions as a class. Finally, address the essential questions directly to the class and open up a class discussion on whether biases still exist in justice systems today.

Ask students how they define religion. Then, how might they define ‘religious differences’?
Furthermore, can they consider how religious differences have been handled throughout history? Is this a peaceful history or a bloody one?

Divide the class into a maximum of six groups. Have each group elect one person as their recorder. Note that everyone else must read and all members should contribute to the answers.

Direct student to the resource, Anti-Judaism before the Enlightenment by Facing History and Ourselves. Ask students to read through the resource and go over the Connection Questions found at the bottom of the page in their small group. Have groups write down their answers. Give 25 minutes for this exercise.

Come back together as a class and go over the answers to the connection questions. Ask each group to answer one question, selecting them randomly. Tell students they should be adding to their answers with thoughts discussed by the class and answers from other groups.

If time permits, ask students the questions below in an open discussion.

1. Does this history feel relevant to the present day?
2. Can you think of other groups that have faced similar hardships in history that still prevail today?