If you love history and made it your profession…

↑ Frumomsi

Tue, Oct 22 2024, 11:07 pm

SuperWify wrote:

My teachers were passionate! But not super well educated. I had one teacher who I still remember her lessons until today because she didn’t shy away. She taught us about the Greek and Roman gods, the origins of Christianity ect. The rest of teachers seemed to read off their notes… which they got from another teacher….

There was a lot of crusade talk and Holocaust stuff.

Off the top of my head here are some random facts I learnt as an adult… My thoughts are all over. Sorry for the disorganization.

Sarah Schneier wasn’t childless, she was divorced
White slave pre war Europe and the fact is was covered up and forgotten
The romanization of prewar shtetl europe when in fact only 15% of Central European Jews were actually frum
Shabbtai tzvis wife Sarah
Frankinsm
Herods granddaughter Salome and his treatment of his wife Mariam after her death
The pirates of the Caribbean were real lol. They had their own republic in Nassau
The really horrific treatment of pregnant women during the crusades

There a lot more. But here’s what I recently got interested in.

The above seems to fall into the subject we called “Historia”. As in, Jewish history. What about teaching American History and Global? Clearly, it needs to be appropriate for a frum school but can be taught accurately and on a high academic level.

Spending a lot of time on Greek and Roman gods seems to me questionable Halachically. Ok to know about it but no reason to dwell on it.

Regarding Sara Schenirer, it’s actually the approach ArtScroll takes in their biographies as well. It’s not a secret that they omit things like that purposely as they don’t believe it’s necessary or integral to the story. To each their own…

↑ SuperWify ↓

Tue, Oct 22 2024, 11:12 pm

Frumomsi wrote:

I’m not passionate about America history. It’s really boring once Columbia discovers America and the British are thrown out. I like ancient and global history but I’m passionate about our past.

We didn’t dwell on the gods. We discussed the way of life in Sparta vrs Athens type and the general outlook of the world wherein polytheism was mainstream. (Think of how weird the Jews seemed!) and how belief in many gods effected their lifestyles.

We never learnt the history of the state of Israel. The ongoing conflict. The wars. The controversial government. I’d love to give that over.

I don’t read frum books for this reason. Waste of time.

As a child I found some old history books in my parents home and I spent hours studying them. They were about Jews in prewar Europe and in America in the early 1900s. What an educational experience that was!

sallysaucer

Tue, Oct 22 2024, 11:17 pm

SuperWify wrote:

What do you do?

I know I can be a history teacher but I don’t like the BY sanitized watered down versions of it. I spend my life relearning what I was learnt consuming thousands of books, podcasts and lectures.

I’d so love to study a period in Jewish history and write up a thesis. That would be my dream. But no one is paying me for it haha.

I have my regular job which I love but my dream is to use my brain daily to keep me motivated.

So.. what do you do? (Long shot, I know.)

Are you me? I wish I could make a career out of my love for history. Closest thing I can imagine is a curator in a museum.

GLUE ↓

Tue, Oct 22 2024, 11:25 pm

SuperWify wrote:

I’m not passionate about America history. It’s really boring once Columbia discovers America and the British are thrown out. I like ancient and global history but I’m passionate about our past.

I have found American history to be fascinating
It depends on the books you are reading,what you looking for

Where have you found good info about how America was before Columbus discovered it?

MommyPhD

Wed, Oct 23 2024, 12:08 am

I'm an English professor. I teach literature/writing and am trained as a historian (as in, my approach to research is historical). I study a particular time period and Jews within that time period. I even run an archive on my literary/historical subject. I got degrees and specialized in what I found interesting.

Ruchel ↓

Wed, Oct 23 2024, 6:29 am

My husband teaches it in yeshiva
If you keep it tznius and not avoda zarayou might get away with less watered down than many assume. I love history and we've prepared some of the lessons together. I'm trained but I don't work. THAT SAID my best point of interest is Jews around the world. It's crucial to teach about far off Jews.

Reality

Wed, Oct 23 2024, 6:58 am

I also love history. I wish there were more job opportunities that paid a living wage. I would love to be a tour guide or a docent.

I also was not taught Jewish history well in school. Partly due to the BY curriculum, partly due to the individual teachers shortcomings.

Here's an example of both. One year in high school we were learning about the middle ages. My historia teacher said at the beginning of the year she doesn't like to focus on the sad things and she prefers to teach about the uplifting. So instead of learning about the horrors of Jewish life in the middle ages, she spent the year telling us cute little vignettes with happy endings.

Even as a teen I thought this teacher was ridiculous. As an adult, I find it more absurd. Who ever heard of just telling happy little stories when your job is to teach about the middle ages? Also only as an adult did I realize what a poorly run school this was. How can a teacher get away with not teaching the curriculum year after year? Where was the oversight from the hanhala? Or were they OK with her happy class?

↑ SuperWify ↓

Wed, Oct 23 2024, 10:05 am

GLUE wrote:

I have found American history to be fascinating
It depends on the books you are reading,what you looking for

Where have you found good info about how America was before Columbus discovered it?

The way I learnt it in school was dry. President A here was his policy, president B this was his.

The native Americans were illiterate so no there isn’t much before then. Except on the Vikings discovery and a bit in the maya and Inca civilizations.

↑ SuperWify ↓

Wed, Oct 23 2024, 10:07 am

MommyPhD wrote:

Wow! What time period are you currently researching?

↑ SuperWify ↓

Wed, Oct 23 2024, 10:09 am

amother Lightcyan wrote:

Anonymous for obvious reasons Wink

My DD is passionate about the Holocaust. She got her dream job - at Yad Vashem.
She's now going for a masters in archival research so she can move up in the ranks there.

I love that!! Wishing her all the best with her advancements.

↑ SuperWify ↓

Wed, Oct 23 2024, 10:10 am

Reality wrote:

Your teacher sounds highly incompetent.

amother

↑ Tuberose ↓

Wed, Oct 23 2024, 10:32 am

Superwifey I related so much to eveything you are saying. Ur inspiring me to look into some of these topic you are bringing up.. I am always on the. Lookout for history podcasts that delve into obscure or unknown topics. What is so so interesting to me is how our Judaism looks very different than Judaism of other eras.

honeymoon

Wed, Oct 23 2024, 10:40 am

MommyPhD wrote:

I have a particular interest in studying jews within a specific time period in history. I find it fascinating to learn what the Jews' roles were during periods like the Civil and revolutionary wars, and how they were impacted by these events.

In school we learned American, Jewish and world history as separate stories. Theres so much context missing and im only learning now as an adult how they were intertwined and the impact world events had on the course of Judaism.

↑ SuperWify ↓

Wed, Oct 23 2024, 11:42 am

amother Tuberose wrote:

This is why history fascinates me so much.

For example it used to be that a significant percentage of Jewry were kariate Jews. How many karaim do you know today? (Though Israel has about 40000 today) they would even intermarriage.

Or- before the churban Judaism was divided into so many sects. The extreme (like the sect that wrote the Dead Sea scrolls), the herodians (not frum, Roman like), the rebels… ect wedlike to believe that we practice the Judaism as Orthodox Jews of our sages the Pharisees but if you study it you would see how much it evolved.

There were certainly no chasidim then but today that’s considered very mainstream. Almost as if they are the real Jews. (There are no real Jews. There was always diversity.)

Last edited by SuperWify on Wed, Oct 23 2024, 11:53 am; edited 3 times in total

↑ SuperWify ↓

Wed, Oct 23 2024, 11:46 am

amother Begonia wrote:

Podcast recommendationsi for jewish history lovers?

History for the curious is excellent. It’s clean, very well researched and informative. R Aubrey Hirsch

Mishpacha had a brilliant podcast called Veiled Reference which featured woman like Dona Garcia ect but they haven’t updated it in a while

I’m currently loving Dr Henry Abramson a brilliant professor. His content is wild ranging and he doesn’t shy away from anything. He’s on YouTube though. I binged through the whole series yesterday on the Israel-Palestine conflict during my cooking marathon. It is by far the most unbiased and truthful approach I have ever heard.

If your interested in the Cairo Genizah there is a book of fiction pieced together of actual documents found of a convert who lost everything once she converted including her husband to a pogrom. https://www.amazon.com/Convert.....47084

If you would like to learn more about the white slave trade in Europe read the book The Third Sister by Talia Carne (I believe mispacha had a series about this a few years back.)

Last edited by SuperWify on Wed, Oct 23 2024, 11:54 am; edited 1 time in total