This is a history project but because we want our students ultimately to teach each other, we started with an introductory video conference during which students asked each other questions and learned a little about one another. Students will then choose a biography from the Centropa website to read and study, as an example of what life was like for someone in a Central or Eastern European country during WWII.

Many students leave a Modern European Jewish History class with the following assumptions: Western European Jews were enlightened and gave birth to modern Judaism and haskalah while Eastern European Jews were traditional and resistant to haskalah. The story of Eastern European Jews typically centers on those Jews who lived in the shtetlach and were confined to the Pale of settlement and are portrayed as traditionally religious and insular.