Education Programs for Schools

Link captionThe 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. Please allow approximately 60 minutes. Students are encouraged to come with questions. 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 and music, and artifacts to explain holidays and lifecycles. Kits can be borrowed for up to two weeks.

There are eight kits in the series:

Jewish Lifecycles (birth, education, marriage, death)

Rosh Hashanah / Yom Kippur (New Year)

Sukkot (thanksgiving holiday)

Chanukah (festival of lights)

Purim (celebration of freedom)

Passover (celebration of freedom)

Sabbath

Holocaust

Jewish Holocaust Study Group

Students in grades 10 to 12 students 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.

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, power point 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 – personal stories of the individuals who rebuilt their lives in Saint John

Survivors’ Stories – watch video testimonies, 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 – learn the history of the Theresienstadt / Terezin camp, read the poetry written by the children and create a butterfly to represents the poem 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.

Documentary Films

"Paper Clips" – how a group of middle school students in Tennessee and their teachers learned about the Holocaust and how they came to share that story in a unique way

"The Conference" – a dramatic version of how the Final Solution was developed at the Wannsee Conference

"Voices of Survival" – interviews with seven survivors who came to Canada woven into the overall story of the Holocaust

"Disobedience: The Sousa Mendes Story" – a dramatic retelling of the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews in France

"The Long Way Home" – the aftermath of the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel as a refuge for displaced Jews

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.

For more information about these programs please call 506-633-1833 or email sjjhm@nbnet.nb.ca.

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:

Greater Saint John Bursary Connector (gsjbursary.ca)