Teach the History and Evolving Identity of Jewish Americans
Jewish Americans: Identity, History, and Experience Online Course
Today’s students are navigating questions of identity, culture, and belonging in increasingly complex ways. Creating space for thoughtful, informed classroom conversations has never been more important.
To support educators in leading those conversations, ICS offers Jewish Americans: Identity, History, and Experience, a free, self-paced professional learning course.
This course examines how Jewish Americans have acculturated and assimilated as well as how Jews have been racially categorized in the United States. By exploring these topics, you will be well-prepared to help students draw connections with other ethnic groups while deepening their own identities.
What This Course Helps Students Learn
This course supports the skills and concepts educators are already teaching—without requiring a new or standalone unit.
Through historical and cultural exploration, students learn to:
- Understand the history of Jewish Americans in the United States
- Explore identity as a combination of shared history, culture, religion, and ancestry
- Recognize the diversity within Jewish communities across race, ethnicity, and practice
- Examine how race is socially constructed and changes over time
- Apply the concept of intersectionality to better understand individual and group experiences
These concepts are relevant across multiple disciplines, including World History, Holocaust studies, civics, social studies, and media literacy.
About the Course
This free, self-paced course examines the experiences of Jewish Americans through the lens of identity, history, and racial formation.
By exploring how Jewish identity has evolved, and how it intersects with broader conversations about race and belonging, educators gain a clearer framework for teaching this history accurately and responsibly.
Course Details
- Free and self-paced
- Designed for middle and high school educators
- Includes classroom-ready instructional resources
- Eligible for professional development credit
A Thoughtful, Nonpartisan Approach
ICS is committed to academic rigor, historical accuracy, and nonpartisan education. This course is designed to support educators in teaching complex history with nuance, confidence, and care—without prescribing viewpoints or advocating political positions.
Our goal is to equip educators with the tools that help students think critically, ask better questions, and engage more thoughtfully with the world around them.
