Family Maps

Now that we have learned a bit about the Jewish history. Let’s play a game that will explain some of these movements.

Class should be broken into small groups.

1-2-3 GO: Students say 1-2-3 GO and then all the students in the group hold up between 0 and 5 fingers. Add all the students' fingers together (3 fingers, 2 fingers, 5 fingers=10=even) if it is an odd number, odds, even number – even. This includes all the students' votes and involves all students in the vote.

We are all living happily in the Land of Israel. Our Temple stands in Jerusalem. Life is good! But ten years after King Herod’s death in 4 BCE, Jerusalem and the Jewish people came under direct Roman rule. The Jews revolted against the Romans and the superior Roman forces led by Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 CE and defeating the last Jewish outpost at Masada 3 years later ending the Jewish peoples reign in Israel until modern times. According to the historian, Josephus Flavius, hundreds of thousands of Jews perished in the siege of Jerusalem and elsewhere in the country, and many thousands more were sold into slavery. Three years later the Romans finished Jerusalem and it was "plowed up with a yoke of oxen," Judea was renamed Palaestina and Jerusalem, Aelia Capitolina.  They destroy Jerusalem, and some Jews remain, but many flee. There will continue to be a Jewish presence in the Land of Israel from this point on. However, many Jews decide to flee. Where shall we go? 

1-2-3 GO: 

Even: 

We go to live in the city of Babylon in modern day Iraq. Although the Temple had been destroyed and Jerusalem burned to the ground, the Jews and Judaism survived the encounter with Rome. Priests were replaced by rabbis and the synagogue became the focus of the Jewish communities. The new center of the Jews becomes Babylon. We will establish cities and send our children to study in Jewish schools. The adults will study and expand the Talmud, which is like studying laws and social contracts. We will flourish in Babylon for the next few hundred years. Mark Babylon on your map.

Odd: 

We will flee back to Egypt. There was a large population of Jews that established a city here after the destruction of the first Temple. Benjamin of Todelo will come and visit this community and will write about the Jews he meets here. The Jews here establish big synagogues and study houses. One of these is known as the Ben Ezra Synagogue. This synagogue included a genizah, or a storage place for abandoned or outdated documents containing the name of God, since Jewish teaching says that any papers had to be stored with reverence, and then eventually buried in a cemetery. The geniza, was “two stories high, more silo than attic – with a rooftop opening accessible from above." The oldest dated document is about 150 years older than the geniza itself with other documents accumulating there for about 850 years. In 1168, the Jewish philosopher, physician and astronomer Maimonides settled in Fustat, within a short walk of Ben Ezra Synagogue. He lived there until his death in 1204. Maimonides became Nagid, or leader of the Egyptian Jewish community in 1171, and worshiped at Ben Ezra Synagogue. Many of the geniza documents include some in his own handwriting, discussing his life and work, and are some of the most important sources for him. Mark Alexandria on your map.

We are now in the Middle Ages, from about 638–1517.  Jewish groups lived in both Muslim– and Christian-dominated areas. Local communities had distinct traditions. Jews who can trace their ancestry back to Central and Eastern European areas are now known as Ashkenazim, and those who come from the Islamic world are now known as Sephardim. Sephardic Jews technically trace their origins back to the Iberian Peninsula, Jews from the historically Muslim lands of the Middle East and North Africa. 

In both Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities, Jews in the Middle Ages had to pay taxes in exchange for being allowed to live in their communities. Many of the Jews came to speak the local languages of the place they lived, and they also adopted the architectural, musical, culinary, and literary styles of their neighbors.

There is a period of tolerance during the Golden Age of Spain that attracts Jews to a better life on the Iberian Peninsula. Immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East made Muslim Spain the largest center of Jews at the time. The Jews prospered culturally, and some notable figures held high posts in the Caliphate or government of Córdoba. Jewish philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, poets and rabbinical scholars composed rich cultural and scientific work. Many Jews devoted themselves to the study of the sciences and philosophy, composing many of the most valuable texts of Jewish philosophy. Jews took part in the overall prosperity of Muslim Spain. In Toledo, Jews were involved in translating texts to various languages in the Toledo School of Translators, as they had been previously translating Greek and Hebrew texts to Arabic. Jews also contributed to botany, geography, medicine, mathematics, poetry and philosophy. In following centuries, Jewish thought flourished under famous figures such as Samuel Ha-Nagid, Moses ibn Ezra, Solomon ibn Gabirol and Judah Halevi. 

Comparing the treatment of Jews in the medieval Islamic world and medieval Christian Europe, the Jews were far more integrated in the political and economic life of Islamic society, and usually faced far less violence from Muslims, and were allowed to practice their religion more freely than they could in Christian Europe.

Will you move to Spain or will you move to Europe?

1-2-3 GO: 

Even : Look at this picture of Jewish life during the Golden Age of Spain for the Sephardic Jews. You have 30 seconds to look at the picture. Remember as many items as you can. Go! After you have named as many items as you can mark Spain on the map. (PICTURE FROM 2ND FLOOR) 

Odd:  Look at this picture of Jewish life during the middle ages in Europe for the Ashkenazi Jews. You have 30 seconds to look at the picture. Remember as many items as you can. Go! After you have named as many items as you can mark Poland on the map. (PICTURE FROM 2ND FLOOR) 

Now let’s look at the picture you did not use for the exercise above. 

The date is now the summer of 1492. This is a very important year! Christopher Columbus and his fleet of three ships, the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria set off on their voyage where Europeans will eventually reach the shores of the Americas. At the same time the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Isabella the First of Castile and Ferdinand the Second of Aragon, ordered the expulsion of Jews from Spain. As a result of the Alhambra decree you must make a choice to leave or remain as a secret Jew – a Converso. If you are caught by the Inquisition you will be tortured and killed as well as your family. It is a very dangerous time to be Jewish. The authorities are always looking for Jewish people who are following Jewish teachings, rituals and holidays. Let’s watch a film about Converso Jews: https://youtu.be/zTWb3qQjHcs

What will you do? Remain a secret Jew or will you go with many others to one of the four major areas: North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, or Italy.‎?

1-2-3 GO: 

Even:

You will remain in Spain as a Converso. What practices will you risk your life to do? What practices will you risk your life to teach your children? Make sure you have marked Spain on your map. Do 1-2-3 GO to see if you will be able to preserve your Judaism:

Even: 

Congratulations you and your descendants remained Jewish. It was dangerous and difficult but you did it against all odds. Mazel Tov!

Odd:

You and your descendants have chosen to survive and be safe and have converted. Your descendants still follow some Jewish customs to this day, such as lighting candles on Friday’s. You are safe and well and we can see your descendants via DNA tests to this very day!

Odd:

You will move to another country.  Do 1-2-3 GO to see where you will go:

Even: 

Portugal followed by other European locations such as Poland and Lithuania. Mark Portugal, and Poland on your map.

Odd:

North Africa – you will become part of the Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian or Libyan Jewish communities. Mark north Africa on your map. 

With the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Poland became the cultural and spiritual center of the Jewish people in Europe. During the 16th and 17th century Poland had the largest Jewish population in the whole of Europe. In this period Poland-Lithuania became the main center for Ashkenazi Jewry. Let’s watch a film that talks about the differences of these two communities. (FILM: FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO LUBLIN)

In 1648, there are large-scale pogroms, anti-Semitic uprisings against Jewish people, known as the Khmelnytsky Uprising, in which the Cossacks (Tribes of wandering militants, who originated from the area of contemporary southern Ukraine)) under Bohdan Khmelnytsky massacred tens of thousands of Jews in the southern areas of Polish-occupied Ukraine. 

In spite of these terrible losses, the Jewish communities continue to survive. Now we will enter into the modern era where we see even more shifts in the Jewish populations. In the film we saw in the beginning of the lesson we saw that in the modern era we had shifts of Jewish populations. We come into the modern era spread all over the globe. 

This brings us to you and your families and their journeys! Let’s look at the map that you can fill out with your family’s information. You will need to ask your families where they came from and fill out these locations on your personal maps. You can use one color for each side of your family so that you will be able to trace all sides. 

Be sure to ask why your family moved from one place to another and what they brought with them; either objects or traditions or languages. 

Ask your families what caused them to move to where they did and what caused them to leave the old place for the new place.

Do you think you will move to another country when you are older? What would make you want to move? What place would you choose to go to and why? What will you take with you to a new country? What will you leave behind? What would be the hardest challenge for you in a new place?