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LESSON PLAN: HISTORY OF ANTI-SEMITISM

Subject: Social Studies

Grade: 9-12

Brief Description

Students research and report on the history of anti-Semitism.

Objectives

  • Students will be able to organize time sequences and chronologies.
  • Students will better understand the widespread acceptance of anti-Semitism under the Nazis.

Key words

Anti-Semitism, genocide, discrimination, stereotype, scapegoat.

Lesson Plan

  • Using material from the classroom, library, or Internet, find information about anti-Semitism. Choose one of the following events (or find another) and see how anti-Semitism affected Jews during that time:

First recorded Blood Libel (in 1144)

Black Death (from 1348-1350)

The Spanish Inquisition (in 1478)

Massacre in Tunisia (in 1535)

First International Anti-Jewish Congress (in 1882)

The Dreyfus case (in 1894)

Publication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (in 1897)

Pogroms in Hungary (in 1919), see also Red Terror, Whites

Henry Ford’s articles in the Dearborn Independent (in 1920)

Nuremberg Laws (introduced in 1935)

Assessment

Write a report about the event, what led up to it, how it started, what happened, how Jews were affected.

Discussion Questions

  • What is the purpose of a scapegoat?
  • Who are popular scapegoats in America today? Are Americans scapegoats in other countries?

Click here for a printable version of this lesson plan.