Feb 16 2008
Exploring your Jewish ancestry through TV and food
New here? Then you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Recently in school, Nathan had to write the story of his ancestry. It was part of what his class was learning about the United States as a nation of immigrants. Since Paul and my families’ backgrounds are complex - we have ancestors from England, Wales, Scotland, France, Denmark, Germany and Greece who immigrated as long ago as the 1600s and as recently as 1960 - the paper ended up being two pages. Needless to say this was a fairly intense assignment for a second grader. (It’s part of the Core Knowledge curriculum - see What Your Second Grader Needs to Know.
Nathan had a hard time understanding that my father, who was born in England, was both English and Jewish. It was even more confusing that my dad became a citizen when he was a kid and was more American than English having grown up in Brooklyn in the ’20s and ’30s and serving as an American soldier in World War II.
Exploring through TV and video
Just around this time, PBS was showing their wonderful documentary, The Jewish Americans
The Jewish Americans is a three-night (6 hour) documentary that explores 350 years of Jewish American history. Written and directed by award-winning filmmaker David Grubin, The Jewish Americans is a journey through time, from the first settlement in 1654 to the present. It is about the struggle of a tiny minority who make their way into the American mainstream while, at the same time, maintaining a sense of their own identity as Jews. Focusing on the tension between identity and assimilation, The Jewish Americans is quintessentially an American story, which other minority groups will find surprisingly familiar. Louis D. Brandeis, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Henry Morgenthau, Hank Greenberg, Betty Friedan, Molly Goldberg, Carl Reiner, Sid Caesar, and Tony Kushner are all interviewed for the documentary.
PBS’s The Jewish Americans website also has video outtakes, links to the history of being Jewish in America, and a place to share your own story.
will be available for purchase October 10, just after the series finishes up on TV. Good thing too, because you should watch 
. In it, Eugenia Van Vliet writes about women from different centuries and recount the meals of their time. You can enjoy dinner with Cleopatra, Annie Oakley, and Mata Hari. Or learn about a meal Anne Boleyn relished at Hampton Court with Henry VIII, eat a meal with Emily Dickinson, and celebrate Passover with Emma Goldman. Sounds fascinating!
33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women’s History: From Suffragettes to Skirt Lengths to the E.R.A.
- For ages 9 to 12, a book for anyone interested in learning more about girls and women in the United States from the 18th century to the present. An engaging, inspiring, informative look at the role women have played in shaping American history.
- For ages 9 to 12, this books turns the spotlight on women who have wielded power, revealing their feats - and flaws - for all the world to see. Here you’ll find twenty of the most influential women in history: queens, warriors, prime ministers, first ladies, revolutionary leaders.
Remember the Ladies: 100 Great American Women
- For ages 9 to 12. In a 1776 letter cautioning her husband to “remember the ladies,” Abigail Adams made one of the earliest pleas for women’s rights in America. How could she have known, in the years to follow, just how many strong and independent women would step forward to forge new paths in their fight for equality? This book provides an engaging look at one hundred outstanding women who have helped shape our great nation.
by Mary Rodd Furbee and others documents outrageous women in American, renaissance, and ancient history.
Women’s History Month
written by Al Gore’s daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff. In this highly readable, illuminating narrative that spans the 20th century, Schiff tells the remarkable stories of nine influential women. These women recognized our country wasn’t living up to its promise and fought to alter it.
