Activity 1: Heritage
Judaism today stands out from other religions for the central idea of ancestry and
heritage. Jews identify as (more or less) literally descended from the ancient Israelites and
ultimately Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Others have also found meaning or a sense of identity and dignity from heritage and
family history. Your task force will be exploring practical questions of family history and deeper
questions of what kind of stories (the highs, the lows) are the most valued.
Preparation (2 hours)
Option 1: Your Own Family History
- What did you already know about your family history?
- What can you learn in a reasonable amount of time from living relatives about your
family history?
- What are the major tools available if you wished to research more deeply? (Don't just
list a website, learn how the website knows what it knows.)
Option 2: Someone Else’s Family History
-
Identify a family history of cultural significance or a person you have some prior
knowledge of.
One example of a culturally significant family history is Alex Haley’s 1976 novel
Roots made into a miniseries in 1977, and remade in 2016.
Watching all four episodes will require some time management (6.5 hours without commercials).
Watching the first episode and summaries by others may suffice.
Another option is the PBS series “Finding Your Roots.”
Browse the list of episodes on Wikipedia for someone you are interested in and see if you can find the episode streaming.
You are also welcome to do research using other media.
- Learn the story, but also pay attention to how people know and why they care.
Keep your notes on paper, not screen, for use in class.
In-Class Collaboration (20 minutes)
- Find your assigned collaborators and introduce yourself
- Whose story did you research?
- What stories or elements of the story are most valued? Heroism and accomplishment?
Enduring through hardship?
- How does a person or group gain a distinct identity from stories of ancestors?
- How do we know what we know, and what are the limits of our knowledge?
Reporting from Small Groups to the Whole Class (20 minutes = 2.5 minutes for each
of eight groups)
- Pick one person to speak for the group
- Introduce self and other members of the group
- Whose heritage did each research?
- What are some of the most interesting points you found in the contents of family stories?
- What are some of the most interesting points you found about methodology of how we
know and why we care?
Individual Written Reflection (10 minutes)
- What was your contribution to the collaboration?
- What did you learn from your collaborators?
- Compare the process of researching on your own with technology and the process of
researching together with humans but not technology.
- Did researching how people remember and memorialize their ancestry and family history
help you understand Israelites and Jews?