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You can learn
about Jewish Western history through a fun activity!
The Autry Museum of Western Heritage is pleased to share these free
educational materials in celebration of Jewish Life in the American
West. The materials were written for third grade students, but can
be adapted to any age or grade level. Follow the links on this page
to print out a dreidle and instructions for the Jewish Life dreidel
game. Please call the education division at 323.667.2000 x244 for
more information.
A dreidel is
a four-sided top with a Hebrew letter on each side. It is usually
made out of clay, wood, or plastic. It is a very popular toy that
is played with during the eight days of Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday.
Make your own dreidel and play the following game.
Make Your
Dreidel
- Print out
the Adobe Acrobat
PDF format Dreidel on a 8.5" by 11" sheet of
paper (use heavy paper or card stock for best result). You can
download Adobe
Acrobat Reader free.
- Cut out the
dreidel along the dotted lines.
- Fold at all
of the solid lines and place a dab of glue on each numbered flap.
- Use your
finger to spread the glue along the flaps.
- Stick each
numbered flap to the back of the flat surface that is next to
it when folded (flap #1 to the
back of the square, flap #2 to the back of the the #5 triangle,
flap #3 to the back of the #2 triangle,
etc.). Flaps #6, #7, and #8 stick to the underside of the top
flap.
- Allow glued-together
dreidel to dry for at least 15 minutes.
- Insert a
pencil through the perforated hole at the top until the tip of
the pencil just touches the point
at the bottom of the dreidel.
- Spin your
dreidel!
Classroom
Activity
This activity is based on the exhibition Jewish Life in the American
West: Generation to Generation organized by the Autry Museum of
Western Heritage. The exhibition tells the story of the settlement
of the West through the eyes of Jewish immigrants who traveled here
and set up communities. Learn about the different reasons Jewish
people came here, what they did when they got here, and how they
created communities throughout the American West.
Play the
Jewish Life in the American West Dreidel Game
Instead of a Hebrew letter on each side of the dreidel, there is
a historical picture of a person. Each person is Jewish and either
came to or was born in the West during the 1800s. All of them did
something important for the Western community, by providing work
clothing that has become a symbol of America, enriching the Jewish
community through education and the arts, contributing to the scientific
knowledge of all human beings, or honoring the community through
public service.
Rules
- Play the
dreidel game with two or more players.
- Only one
dreidel is needed to play the game.
- Place twenty-five
tokens in the center of the table. Tokens can be anything from
buttons to paper clips.
- Players
take turns spinning the dreidel. When the dreidel stops, a historical
person will be facing up. The person who spun the dreidel tells
the other players one new fact about the person facing up on the
dreidel and takes one token from the center of the table. If a
player can’t think of a new fact, he or she cannot take a
token and the next player spins the dreidel.
- When all
tokens are gone from the center of the table, the player with
the most tokens is the winner.
Gallery Connections
When you visit
the exhibit, spin your dreidel and find out more about these Western
Jewish settlers.
You can find out a lot of new facts about the Jewish community in
the West. In the first room of the exhibition find the oldest artifact.
What is this object? Why is it important?
Find the large advertisement for Levi’s. Can you discover more
facts about Levi Strauss that you can use to play the dreidel game?
Look for the painting done by Solomon Nuñes Carvalho. What
do you remember about him? What new things can you learn about Carvalho
by looking at the painting?
There are many exciting new facts about Florence Prag Kahn and her
mother in Jewish Life in the American West: Generation to Generation.
See if you can come up with two new facts and share them with your
friends.
Dr. Albert Michelson is in this exhibition, too! Find his photograph
and read more about him.
Is there anything you found while exploring the exhibition today
that reminded you of something in your own family, culture, or community?
Name two things about your community and the Jewish community that
are very similar or very different.
Biography:
a written account (description) of someone’s life
Community: a group of people who share the same interests
or beliefs and/or who live in the same area
Emigration: the act of leaving one’s home country
Entrepreneur: a person who takes it upon himself or herself
to begin or manage a new business
Immigration: the act of entering a new country
Jewish: relating to the customs, traditions, and/or religion
of the Jews
Kosher: a term describing food prepared according to Jewish
dietary laws
Migration: the act of moving from one area to settle in a
different area
Rabbi: a Jewish religious leader and teacher
 Solomon
Nuñes Carvalho (1815–1897)
Artist and explorer
• Solomon Nuñes
Carvalho was a Sephardic Jew born in South Carolina.
• He spent one
year in the West as part of a historic expedition led by Colonel
John Charles Frémont to survey the route for a railroad across
the Rocky Mountains.
• He documented
the journey in writings, oil paintings, and daguerreotypes (an early
type of photograph) and wrote a book based on his adventure.
• Many people
consider him the first photographer to travel to the West.
• After the expedition
Carvalho helped create the first Jewish organization in Los Angeles.
 Florence
Prag Kahn (1866–1948)
Congresswoman and educator
• Florence
Prag Kahn was born in 1866 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
• Her
family was well established in the West.
• Kahn’s
grandfather was one of the first shochets (kosher butchers) in San
Francisco.
• Her
mother was an educator and helped fight for women’s rights.
• Her
father was a merchant who sold supplies to the gold miners and helped
organize one of the first synagogues in California.
• Kahn
received a degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She
went on to teach high school English and history.
• Kahn
was the first Jewish congresswoman in the United States. She served
for twelve years.
• She
was very dedicated to Judaism and participated in many Jewish organizations.
She traveled throughout California trying to encourage women to
become involved in national politics.
 Albert
Abraham Michelson (1852–1931)
Physicist and Nobel Prize winner
• Dr.
Albert Abraham Michelson was born in Strelno, Prussia, and moved
to the Western United States when he was four years old.
• He and
his family immigrated to Calavares, California.
• When
he was in elementary school, his family sent him to San Francisco
so he could go to a better school. He joined the U.S. Naval Academy,
where he was so good at solving science problems that the Academy
accused him of cheating.
• At the
age of 26, his first invention measured the speed of light.
• His
research helped lay the groundwork for Einstein’s theory of
relativity.
• Michelson
was also an artist, a musician, and an athlete.
• In 1907,
Michelson became the first American to receive the Nobel Prize for
science.
 Levi Strauss (1829–1902)
Developer of Levi blue jeans
• Levi
Strauss was born as Loeb Strauss in Buttenheim, Bavaria. He immigrated
to the United States to work in his brothers’ dry goods business
in New York.
• When
news of the California Gold Rush made its way east, Strauss decided
to migrate to California to make his fortune by selling supplies
to the miners. In 1853 he opened a new branch of the family business
in San Francisco.
• In 1872,
Strauss and his customer Jacob Davis created work pants with rivets
to make them sturdy.
• Levi’s
have been sold for 130 years and are still very popular today.
• Levi
Strauss actively supported orphanages, charities, and the Jewish
community.
Photo credits:
Albert Abraham Michelson. Special Collections and Archives Division,
Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy.
Solomon Nuñes Carvalho. Courtesy of Jacob Rader Marcus Center
of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati.
Florence Prag Kahn. From the Archives of Western States Jewish History
Journal.
Levi Strauss. Founder of Levi Strauss & Co. Courtesy Levi Strauss
& Co. Archives, San Francisco.
Explore the
history of immigrants to the American West. Try these suggested
activities with your class.
1. Investigate
the biographies of the four historical figures from the dreidel
game. Ask each student to choose the individual they think contributed
the most to his or her community. Divide students into groups
according to the historical figure chosen and then ask them to
decide, as a group, how to convince the rest of the class that
their person contributed the most. Photocopy the extended biographies
on the back of this brochure for each group.
2. Discuss
the different organizations that Western Jewish communities set
up to maintain their culture and religion. Ask students to consider
these questions: What would you do to maintain your family, community,
or cultural traditions if you moved? What things are important
to you?
3. Conduct
Jewish community research on the Internet using the recommended
Web site list. Ask students to find three interesting facts that
they didn’t know before about Jewish people by looking at
different Web sites. Write all of the interesting facts the class
gathered on the blackboard.
4. Have students
attend a Jewish holiday celebration at a local temple or Jewish
community center and then have them write a newspaper article
about the holiday.
5. Many Jewish
people who came to the West had a strong impact on their communities.
Ask students to consider these questions: If you were coming to
a new town, what would you do? How would you make sure that your
voice was heard? What are some of the different ways a person
or a community can change the place they live in? (Examples: being
active in politics, being involved in community organizations,
opening businesses, etc.) Discuss with students an important problem
in their community today and ask them to explain how they might
go about changing it.
6. Have each
student research his or her own family’s immigration. Ask
them to interview family members to find out how and why their
family immigrated to the United States or migrated to Los Angeles.
Give students individual blank world maps or a map of the United
States, or use a large world map to chart their families’
immigration paths.
7. European
Jews who immigrated to the United States had to travel across
the ocean to get here. Ask students to pretend that they are going
to emigrate to another country, but they can’t take all of
their belongings with them. Have students list the top ten items
each would take to an unfamiliar place. Then ask students to list
ten things that they would leave behind. Discuss why they included
certain items on the lists and why they decided to leave certain
items off.
8. Conduct
a short introduction about how objects are cared for in a museum.
Ask students to bring in one family, community, or cultural item
that they would take with them if they had to move to a new land.
Have students create a short two- or three-sentence description
of their object. Divide students into groups of four or five to
create mini-museum exhibits using their descriptions as labels.
Have students decide what the groups’ objects have in common
and then draw a picture or write a label describing each group
of objects. When the activity is completed, have the whole class
walk around to see all of the exhibits.
The above activities fulfill
the following national teaching standards:
| Standard
2: |
History
of Students’ Local Community and How Communities in North
America Varied Long Ago
|
| Standard
6: |
Regional
Folklore and Cultural Contributions That Helped to Form Our
National Heritage
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