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May 19, 2026
Jewish American Heritage Month is the perfect time to bring rich, untold American stories into your classroom. The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History has free, vetted, standards-aligned resources to help you do exactly that.
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By Bryan J. Kessler
It has been 20 years since a bipartisan effort led to officially establishing May as Jewish American Heritage Month—or JAHM, as we affectionately call it. We at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia have had the honor to serve as the primary national organizer for JAHM for nearly a decade.
As America kicks off its 250th birthday celebrations, this year’s JAHM gives us a front-row seat to put a spotlight on how the Jewish people have been woven into the fabric of the American story since 1654. Being on Independence Mall gives our museum a unique vantage point to join the celebrations. But the current surge in antisemitic acts is added incentive to remind America that, Jewish Americans have helped shape this nation's promises of freedom, liberty, democracy and equality.
Our newest exhibition, “The First Salute: An Untold Story of the American Revolution,” is a perfect example of elevating a story that is simultaneously Jewish, American, and deeply human.
The exhibit centers on St. Eustatius, a volcanic Caribbean island where Dutch colonists and a small Jewish community built the trading network that supplied the Continental Army with the arms, ammunition and supplies it desperately needed to defeat the British. Their success was so consequential that British Admiral George Rodney’s decision to persecute the island’s Jewish community caused him to miss his orders and ultimately, to miss intercepting the French fleet on its way to Yorktown. The rest, as they say, is history.
We are thrilled to make this story accessible through the AFT Share My Lesson portal, our own Stories that Shaped a Nation portal, and the exhibition itself, just steps from Independence Hall. Every one of our educational materials is designed to challenge students’ assumptions and spark critical thinking through authentic experiences.
Whenever I think about JAHM and the larger American Jewish experience, I think of Israel Isadore Beilin, better known as Irving Berlin. His origin story has become the stuff of legend.
He was born in a tiny Jewish shtetl in the late 1880s. His family fled violent pogroms and, like 2.25 million of their Eastern European Jewish neighbors, made it to America. They landed at Ellis Island, passed through inspection, and settled in the ethnically dense Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Young “Izzy” left school early and found work however he could. With a natural gift for music, he became a singing waiter—writing and performing his own songs. He Americanized his name to Irving Berlin and proceeded to write some of the most beloved songs in our national songbook: “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “White Christmas,” “Easter Parade,” “Cheek to Cheek” and his magnum opus, “God Bless America.” Irving Berlin’s story is the American dream personified.
Every day, I walk past the very piano Berlin used to compose “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and a signed copy of “God Bless America,” on display here at the Weitzman Museum. It is a daily reminder that Jewish people are part of the American mosaic and have been since 1654. That piano sits fewer than 300 steps from the room where religious liberty was first enshrined, where a group of colonists became Americans, and made a promise to the world.
Stories are the lifeblood of the American experience. Famous and infamous. Successes and failures. Earned and inherited. For Jewish Americans, stories have been the thread of survival and identity across generations. Never in the history of the Jewish people has there been a place where Jews could simply be free to worship as they choose, live where they want, love how they wish, laugh how they choose and simply (and incredibly) be Americans.
Our stories make us. They help us understand who we are, inform our own narratives, and shape our nation.
As educators, I know we feel pulled in every direction: standards, curriculum maps, AP exam deadlines, professional development hours, SWBATs (Students Will Be Able To), assessment tools. I spent nearly 20 years in the classroom, and I often found myself more worried about reaching the end of the textbook than remembering what made me want to be an educator in the first place: to teach stories.
Our stories make us. They help us understand who we are, inform our own narratives, and shape our nation. That’s why I am proud to offer fellow educators free, vetted and tested materials for JAHM, and for any time of year, that bring Jewish American experiences and contributions into your classroom.
We at the Weitzman revere that two of America’s most enduring documents were written from a Jewish context. When the congregation of Touro Synagogue in Newport, R.I., wrote to President Washington asking what role Jewish people could play in the new nation, Washington responded with a now-famous credo—promising that the U.S. government would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
And as the nation prepared to receive the Statue of Liberty to mark its Centennial, a 34-year-old Jewish woman named Emma Lazarus—herself a descendant of the original 1654 Jewish arrivals—wrote the poem that would be inscribed at Liberty’s base, welcoming the world’s “tired, poor, huddled masses” to America’s golden door.
Not everyone can make it to Philadelphia this summer—and it’s getting harder by the day to find a hotel in the “City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection” as the official Semiquincentennial celebrations approach. But you don’t need to be here to bring these stories to your students.
Our lessons on the JAHM page and Stories that Shaped a Nation portal are student-centered, standards-aligned and, most importantly, teach about the joy of being Jewish: the joy of life, of song, and of hope that has sustained an ancient people through centuries of adversity.
Whether you access “The First Salute,” Irving Berlin’s journey, or any of our Stories that Shaped a Nation lessons through the AFT Share My Lesson platform, these resources are free, ready to use, and built for JAHM and every month of the year. I hope they help you feel even a fraction of the chills I get every morning walking past Independence Hall on my way to Irving Berlin’s piano.
Bryan J. Kessler, is the director of Education at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.
Listen, learn and explore the history of Jewish Americans with your students by using our free collection of preK-12 resources to supplement your lesson planning.
Explore this growing collection of classroom-ready lessons that center voices too often left out—Indigenous leaders, LGBTQ+ activists, immigrant communities, and more.
