In this project, students in groups of 3-4 will read a memoir, diary or biography about a European child whose life was turned to chaos during the Shoah, 1933 to 1945. To start the project, each group will receive a photograph of a contemporary railway station in Europe near where the child’s story takes place and they will begin their Geographical Treasure hunt by finding out where that railway station is today.

Students interviewed and took pictures of a relative while they prepared a favorite family recipe. The students then created a PowerPoint presentation that included their relative preparing the dish; background information about the recipe and the family member; and a recipe from Centropa that will highlight the similarities in Jewish cooking. Students’ interactions through family collaborative tasks can provide opportunities for them to acquire knowledge that may ultimately influence their personal development and growth.

This project is a student museum about Czech Jewry. Students research the lives of Czechoslovakian Jews between World War One and World War Two.  The Museum consists of panels dedicated to individual Czech Jews exploring one aspect of their lives; video of individual Czech Jews; historical context of both Jewish life in Czechoslovakia and of the country itself; an exhibit on personal family histories, ambience exhibits. This exhibit was open to the public, and invitations were sent out for a special gala evening for the opening of the exhibit for the entire school community.

This lesson uses the interview from Hedvig Endrei, from Hungary. In a labor camp during the war, Mrs. Endrei and her friends wrote out a book of recipes and she returned home with this book.  

In this family history project, students conduct oral histories with family members with the objective of creating a final project about their family history and understanding how an individual's family story is part of the larger story of Jewish history. The project begins in November, starting with the National Day of Listening Project (http://nationaldayoflistening.org).

Just as we pass the Torah from one generation to the next at bar and bat mitzvahs, so do we pass family stories dor l’dor (from generation to generation). Stories connect us to our history, our traditions, and who we are.

During this session families will learn the stories of several individuals who survived the Holocaust and then stayed in Europe after the war. They saw the destruction of the societies in which they grew up and they lived through the harshest years of Communist rule and, ultimately, witnessed the fall of Communism as well. During all this time they lived their lives and raised their families and chose to retain their Jewish identities.

In this family education program, we apply Centropa’s stories from our past to reflect on our values, and translate that learning into action for the present and future. The goal is for families to learn a wide variety of Jewish values and for each family to consider which values they want to consciously live by as a family, and then commit to them.