Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) celebrates Jewish American Heritage Month 2022 by honoring and highlighting the diverse culture, heritage, and contributions of the Jewish community throughout history. May serves as an opportunity to reflect on stories of the bravery and resiliency of the Jewish community who continue to face violence, discrimination, and uncertain odds in communities around the United States and the world. Jewish people have played and continue to play a significant role in United States history and culture. We encourage our community to study, observe, and celebrate the Jewish community in recognition of their story and culture.
“The Jewish American story, and the story of our Nation as a whole, is fueled by faith, resilience, and hope.” –President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
STEM Scholar Highlights:
- Steven Weinberg (Theoretical Physicist)
- Ada E. Yonath (Crystallographer)
- Rivka Carmi (Pediatrician and Geneticist)
Read, Watch, Listen
- Explore the Jewish American Heritage Month National Archives online
- Explore the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Online Exhibits
- Explore the National Park Service: Jewish American Heritage Month resources online
- Read the Gordon Library’s Jewish Faith and Spirituality Library Guide
- Read the National Endowment for the Humanities Virtual Bookshelf: Jewish American Heritage Month
- Read A Proclamation on Jewish American Heritage Month, 2022 online
- Watch Ida online
- 18-year old Anna, a sheltered orphan raised in a convent, is preparing to become a nun when the Mother Superior insists she first visit her sole living relative. Naïve, innocent Anna soon finds herself in the presence of her aunt Wanda (Agata Kulesza), a worldly and cynical Communist Party insider, who shocks her with the declaration that her real name is Ida, and her Jewish parents were murdered during the Nazi occupation. This revelation triggers a heart-wrenching journey into the countryside, to the family house and into the secrets of the repressed past, evoking the haunting legacy of the Holocaust and the realities of postwar Communism.
- Watch My Coffee with Jewish Friends online via Gordon Library
- A new film from veteran filmmaker Manfred Kirchheimer is always a cause for celebration; with My Coffee, Kirchheimer uses a simple, humorous title as a screen to ask serious questions, from gender inequality to secularism to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, for a deeply thoughtful exploration of contemporary Jewish identity.
- Watch the series on Jewish Women in America online
- The CUNY TV series Jewish Women in America, hosted by historian Blanche Wiesen Cook, provides interviews with notable Jewish women on their contributions to U.S. society.
- Listen to the College Commons Podcast
- Listen to the Voices on Antisemitism Podcast
- Listen to the Unorthodox Podcast
- Listen to BackStory; Judaism in America online
Take Action
- Support the Anti-Defamation League
- Donate to the Union for Reform Judaism
- Register to Vote -OR- Check Your Voter Registration
- Everything you need to vote. Vote.org
“May is Jewish American Heritage Month – On April 20, 2006, President George W. Bush proclaimed that May would be Jewish American Heritage Month. The announcement was the crowning achievement in an effort by the Jewish Museum of Florida and South Florida Jewish community leaders that resulted in resolutions introduced by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania urging the president to proclaim a month that would recognize the more than 350-year history of Jewish contributions to American culture. The resolutions passed unanimously, first in the House of Representatives in December 2005 and later in the Senate in February 2006.”
Learn more: https://www.jewishheritagemonth.gov/