The authors draw on 40 interviews with middle and high school English language arts and social studies teachers about how they addressed topics related to Jewish history and culture in class. Insights from these interviews will provide education leaders, curriculum developers, and professional learning providers with an understanding of the supports and resources that could help teachers deepen their instruction on these complex subjects.

Deepening Instruction on the Holocaust and Topics Related to Jewish Life

Findings from Teacher Interviews

Ashley Woo, Rebecca L. Wolfe, Logan Elizabeth Robinson, Anna Shapiro, Julia H. Kaufman

ResearchPublished Jul 2, 2025

The authors draw on data from 40 interviews with middle and high school English language arts (ELA) and social studies teachers that were conducted from January to March 2025. During the interviews, the authors aimed to discover how teachers addressed topics related to Jewish history and culture in their classrooms, such as the Holocaust, antisemitism, Judaism, Israel, Jewish American identity, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The U.S. public education system is a potentially powerful avenue through which to counter antisemitism. Greater knowledge about Jews and Jewish history and greater awareness of present-day antisemitism are associated with a reduction in antisemitic sentiments. The descriptive insights from these interviews will provide state, district, and school leaders and organizations that support instruction related to Jewish history and culture (e.g., curriculum developers, professional development providers) with an understanding of the types of supports and resources that could help teachers deepen their instruction on these complex subjects.

Key Findings

  • Among the ELA teachers interviewed who taught about topics related to Jewish history and culture, most reported focusing their instruction on a Holocaust novel with varying levels of integration about other topics.
  • Most social studies teachers said that they taught about the topics in the context of a World War II unit. Social studies teachers also said that they situated their instruction about these topics in units about immigration, the post–World War II era, foreign or domestic policy, and ancient civilizations or world religions.
  • Teachers wove together topics related to Jewish history and culture by providing historical context to the topics and illuminating relationships between historical and contemporary events.
  • Academic standards established a foundation for teachers' instruction, but teachers tended to exercise significant instructional autonomy. Most teachers cobbled together materials from a variety of sources, including textbooks, literary and informational texts, videos, and primary sources they found themselves.
  • Most teachers were open to addressing more topics related to Jewish history and culture and spending more time on those topics.
  • However, teachers cited barriers to deepening their instruction on the topics, such as difficulty fitting the topics into the scope of their course or subject, a lack of time, and a lack of expertise.
  • Teachers wanted more materials and professional learning (PL) for teaching about topics related to Jewish history and culture outside the Holocaust.

Recommendations

  • Curriculum developers should ensure that their materials are easy for teachers to integrate into their instruction.
  • Curriculum developers should create and disseminate content that provides historical context to topics related to Jewish history and culture and connects the topics to present-day experiences.
  • Curriculum developers should develop and curate materials that are engaging, age-appropriate, and credible to increase teacher uptake.
  • Developers should streamline access to high-quality resources about Jewish history and culture by making them easy to find.
  • PL providers should provide practical PL opportunities that acknowledge teachers' time constraints and are easily accessible to them, no matter their location.
  • PL providers should partner with schools and districts to disseminate PL opportunities.
  • Schools and districts should consider offering electives focused on topics related to Jewish history and culture or providing teachers with materials they can use in existing elective courses.
  • State, district, and school leaders should actively create opportunities for collaboration between ELA and social studies teachers.

Topics

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Citation

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Woo, Ashley, Rebecca L. Wolfe, Logan Elizabeth Robinson, Anna Shapiro, and Julia H. Kaufman, Deepening Instruction on the Holocaust and Topics Related to Jewish Life: Findings from Teacher Interviews. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3615-2.html.
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