2012 Northern Nevada
Holocaust Conference:
Teacher Training
The Jewish Diaspora
and Untold Stories of
the Holocaust
Diaspora
 From the Greek: To scatter about, disperse, spread out.
Dia- “about, across”
Speirein- “to scatter”
 First used to describe the scattering of the Jews to
countries outside of Palestine after the Babylonian
captivity 587-538 BCE (Deut 28:25)
 Comprised of an Ethnic or Religious group, or both.
 Diasporas are distinguished by a groups’ collective or
mythic memory of a homeland with a desire to return
there one day and by personal identification with the
homeland that shapes their identity.
 Over the course of history, the word has been used to
describe the scattering of many groups of people:
Historical Examples
 Subsequent expulsions of Jews from Palestine/Judea
 The African Diaspora which began during the Atlantic
Slave Trade and includes the descendants of between 9
and 12 million African people living in North and South
America as well as the Caribbean.
 The Katrina Diaspora refers to the displacement of over
40,000 residents of New Orleans because of Hurricane
Katrina.
 The Post 1945 Jewish Diaspora refers to Jewish
enthnoreligious communities through out the world,
their local expressions of secular and religious Judaism,
and a recognition of and support for Israel as the center
of the Jewish world.
Mapping the Jewish Diaspora
What historical
generalizations can you
make about the Jewish
People based on these
maps?
Expulsions and Resettlement
during the Middle Ages
What conclusions can you draw about the experience of Jewish
People during the Middle Ages? From your own knowledge
can you share any specific examples?
European Jewish Population
Distribution Circa 1933
Jigsaw Reading
Narratives of Yad Vashem’s
“Righteous among the Nations”
 www.yadvashem.org
 Yad vashem “a memorial and a name”
 Yad Vashem, located in Israel, serves as the Jewish
people’s living memorial to Holocaust. The
organization commemorates the Holocaust through
commemoration, documentation, research, and
education.
 The Righteous Among the Nations is comprised of
individuals who “mustered extraordinary courage
to uphold human values” and who took the risk to
save Jewish people from the Holocaust.
Jigsaw Instructions
 EXPERT GROUP:
 In your group of 7, collect one “Righteous
among the Nations” narrative and one note
taker.
 Read the selected narrative.
 Move from your table to find all other members
with the same color narrative.
 Together, answer the corresponding questions
on the front page of the note taker.
Jigsaw Instructions:
 JIGSAW GROUP:
 Move back to your original group.
 Together, work through the questions on the back
page of the note taker.
 Individually, complete the summarizing statement.
 Prepare to Share!
Jigsaw Debrief
What about these narratives
was new and how do they
add to you own knowledge
and understanding of the
Holocaust or Diaspora?
Close Read
Benefits of Diaspora
Eric Hobsbaum
London Review of Books 2005
Close Reading Method
1. Students silently read a rich and complex passage of
text.
2. The teacher reads the text aloud as students follow
along. In doing so, the teacher models fluency.
3. The teacher asks open-ended, text-dependent questions
to the whole class, and provides opportunities after
each question for students to work in small groups to
find evidence and answers.
4. The teacher provides probing, when necessary, to help
students fully understand the text.
5. Students write on a core understanding of the text
using evidence.
Why do close reading?
 CCSS requires that we present students with
complex and rich texts, and that we provide
them opportunities within the text to:
 Struggle to find answers to open-ended questions;
 Make meaning and build knowledge;
 Identify and appropriately use textual evidence;
 Become more proficient readers and understand an
author’s craft and structure.
Modeling the Close Read
 Stick to the text. We are going to model a
process wherein background knowledge is
not necessary. Please keep your answers
tied to the text.
 Cite line numbers and specific
words/phrases from the text in your
answer.
 Look for more than one answer (or way of
answering) in every question.
Questions
 What is the author’s historical focus? How
is this different than “most work in the
field of Jewish history?”
 Using several pieces of evidence, describe
the standard relationship between the
Jews and Gentiles between 100 A.D. and
the 19th Century?
 In line 17, the word “ghettoization” is
used by the author. What clues do you
have for this word’s meaning from lines
17-21?
Questions, Continued
 What words in the article describe the
Ostjuden?
 What world events and changes sparked a
Jewish awakening of the Ostjuden?
 In line 47, the author claims “From the
start, the contribution of emancipated
Jews to their host societies had been
disproportionately large.” Make a list of 46 ways in which he proves this claim.
Questions, Continued
 Using examples from the text, describe how and
why the author used the phrase “lid had been
removed from a pressure cooker” in line 26-27.
 In spite of the tragedy of the Holocaust, how does
the author reflect on the accomplishments of the
Jews due to the diaspora?
 The author states, “The paradox of the era since
1945 is that the greatest tragedy in Jewish history
has had two utterly different consequences.” What
are the two different consequences, and how does
symbolize the emancipation of the Jewish people in
the modern world?
Teacher Reflection
 Describe what completing this activity was like?
 How was this method different than a lecture?
 Compare your experience versus students’
experience doing the same kind of exercise?