Jewish American Heritage Month

Held each May, Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM) was established in 2006 to recognize more than 350 years of Jewish contributions to American culture in fields ranging from sports and arts and entertainment to medicine, business, science, government, and military service.

Do you have favorite resources that are not listed below? Please share them in the comments or email us at programminglibrarian@ala.org.

Last updated: May 1, 2023

General Information

The Jewish American Heritage Month website has a wealth of resources for celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month, including stories about notable Jewish Americans including “From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America” and “Jewish Veterans of WWII."  The website also features a teacher curriculum and other online resources.

Library Programming

• Pikes Peak (Colo.) Library District will have a take-home kit to make a felt flower for Shavuot. 
• Skokie (Ill.) Public Library is hosting an Israeli Salad Social.
• The Library of Congress hosted two film screenings for Jewish American Heritage Month. The two films were "Baghdad Twist" (about the disappearance of an Iraqi-Jewish family during the Arab-Israel wars) and "Hava Nagila (The Movie)" (about the history of the song "Hava Nagila").
• Americans the Holocaust traveling library exhibition (applications open June, 2023) 

Teaching Resources

• Chatham University's Jennie King Mellon Library's website on Jewish American History month features podcasts, books, primary source materials, and other resources.
• The National Endowment for the Humanities offers archives of Jewish history resources on its EDSITEment Web site. The pages provide general information as well as links to featured lessons and Web sites.
• "The Jewish Americans" by David Grubin on PBS.
• "The U.S. and the Holocaust" by Ken Burns on PBS.

Other Resources

You can find general information about Jewish culture as well as related links, bibliographies, music and DVD lists, and more at the following sites:

• Jewish Women’s Archive
• Finkelstein Memorial Library
• The Jewish History Resource Center