Education Programs for Schools
The Saint John Jewish Historical Museum can offer students a variety of resources and learning opportunities as a means to better understand Jewish life and culture.
Tour of the Saint John Jewish Historical Museum and Shaarei Zedek Synagogue
The tour includes a video on Jewish holidays and traditions and exhibits on the Jewish way of life and local community history.
Students are encouraged to come with questions. A worksheet with thirty questions accompanies the tour and can be used to prompt classroom discussion or test what students have learned.
Please allow approximately 60 minutes.
Our space is able to accommodate one class at a time.
Jewish Education Outreach Kits
Bring the Jewish culture to the classroom through one of the Museum’s kits.
Each kit includes a teacher’s manual, books, video, music, and artifacts to explain holidays and lifecycles.
There are eight kits in the series:
- Jewish Lifecycles (birth, education, marriage, death)
- Rosh Hashanah / Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
- Sukkot (Jewish life after the Exodus)
- Chanukah (festival of lights)
- Purim (story of Queen Esther)
- Passover (celebration of freedom)
- Sabbath
- Holocaust
* Kits can be borrowed for up to two weeks.
Holocaust Lesson Plans
Each of the lessons below can be adapted for different grade levels and can be presented through a classroom visit, via Zoom/Teams or by the teacher in the classroom.
Each lesson includes an introduction, PowerPoint slides, links to web resources, and a hands-on worksheet for students.
The worksheets guide students in gathering information and responding to it through writing or drawing.
Students are encouraged to share their work as part of a class discussion or to post their work online.
Saint John Survivors of the Holocaust
The Holocaust happened in Europe more than 80 years ago but its impact was felt in Saint John. These are the personal stories of the individuals who rebuilt their lives in Saint John – the worksheet guides the gathering of information and discussion of the different experiences. An optional extension leads to an exploration of the news coverage in the Saint John newspapers of the day.
Survivors’ Stories
Watch video testimonies online, use the worksheet to gather information and then write a short biography, letter to the survivor, social media posts or create a graphic representation to share the story.
I Never Saw Another Butterfly
Students will learn about the history of the Theresienstadt / Terezin camp, read the poetry written by the children and then create a butterfly to represent the poem they have read or write an original poem.
Canada Responds to the Holocaust
Learn how Canada failed to respond to the crisis by studying the voyage of the MS St. Louis and the internment of hundreds of Jewish men in camps across the country, with a focus on the camp located near Fredericton.
"Paper Clips" (documentary film)
Follow a group of middle school students in the small town of Whitwell, Tennessee and their teachers as they learned about the Holocaust and how they came to share that story in a unique way.
"The Long Way Home" (documentary film)
This film looks at the aftermath of the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel as a refuge for displaced Jews.
"Voices of Survival" (documentary film)
This Canadian documentary tells the story of the Holocaust through the eyes of seven Holocaust survivors who came to Canada. Each experienced these events in a unique way and the impact of those years remained with them in the decades that followed. The film is narrated by Stephen Lewis and features Philip Riteman, Murray Kenig, Faye Schulman, Kenny Ertl, Vera Slymovics, Vera Eden, and Paul Kagan.
"Disobedience: The Sousa Mendes Story" (documentary film)
In a time when there were few willing to step forward and save Europe’s Jews, this film presents a dramatic retelling of the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews in France and suffered the consequences of his heroic actions.
The Conference (documentary film)
On January 20, 1942, 14 high-ranking representatives of the Nazi regime were invited by Reinhard Heydrich, head of the security police and SD, to a “meeting followed by breakfast” in a villa on the Great Wannsee in the southwest of Berlin. The exclusive topic of the 90-minute discussion is what the National Socialists called the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” – the bureaucratically planned organization of the systematic mass murder of millions of Jews from all over Europe. The Wannsee Conference marks a pivotal point in human history.
Jewish Holocaust Study Group
Students in grades 10 to 12 from the Saint John area can register for up to seven learning sessions at the Saint John Jewish Historical Museum on the Holocaust. The program includes guest speakers, documentary films and reading and art activities to examine the events of the Holocaust. Students may choose to read and review a book and undertake original projects (essay, artwork, creative writing, music, drama) which may also count towards regular class work.
Classroom speakers
If your students cannot come to the Museum, speakers are available to come to your classroom, in person or through Teams.
We can present a classroom lecture with video and artifacts to explain Jewish culture and holidays for any grade level.
If you wish we can focus on one particular holiday or give an overview of all holidays.
We can also do presentations about the Jewish history of Saint John and on the Holocaust.
These sessions include time for students and teachers to ask questions.
The Garfield T. Meltzer - Jewish War Veterans Scholarship
The Meltzer family established The Garfield T. Meltzer – Jewish War Veterans Scholarship Fund with the Greater Saint John Community Foundation to honour a noted community businessman, war veteran and volunteer.
The fund supports an annual scholarship, on a merit basis, for a graduate of any Greater Saint John area High School entering first year at any post-secondary institution.
The intent is to assist local students exhibiting academic success and community service, who demonstrate the spirit of kindness, honesty, integrity, public service and dedication to family, community and country as embodied by Garfield T. Meltzer during his lifetime.
More information and a link to the application can be found at this link:
Contact us for inquiries
Please contact the Jewish Historical Museum at:
Phone: 506-633-1833