Journey through Jewish Vienna, Salonika, and Buczacz, once-vibrant communities where learning, culture, and tradition flourished for centuries before the Holocaust.
Essential Questions
- How does geography and location shape the development and experiences of its residents?
- How did Jewish communities maintain religious and cultural identity while adapting to local languages, customs, and opportunities?
- What role did education, religion, and social organizations play in sustaining Jewish life across generations?
Big Ideas
- Identity: Across history, Jewish communities adapted to their environments and created diverse cultures, all while staying connected through shared traditions and values.
- Diversity Within Unity: Jewish life in Europe was extraordinarily diverse, from different languages, customs, economics, political views, and levels of religious observance, yet all communities were connected by shared traditions, holidays, and historical memory.
- Resilience and Antisemitism: Despite the persistent threat of discrimination and antisemitism, Jewish life thrived and Jewish communities created vibrant intellectual and cultural life.
Grade Level: 7-12
Subject(s)
- Social Studies
- English Language Arts
Rationale/Teacher Notes
This resource introduces students to the diversity of Jewish communities that existed across Europe before the Holocaust. It is designed to serve as essential context before:
- Reading Holocaust literature or memoir
- Beginning a unit on Jewish history, the Holocaust, or prejudice and discrimination
- Analyzing primary sources related to antisemitism or WWII
- Primary Source on Jewish Life in Europe
In partners or small groups, have students analyze the following quotes about prewar Jewish life in Vienna, Buczacz, and Salonica.- Quote #1: “Those were Jewish and non-Jewish friends and no one ever talked about that one being a Jewish friend and that one a Christian friend. There were really a lot of friends, and it was so casual that people just came. They didn’t call ahead, as is common today. The door was open to everyone.” Lucia Heilman, Vienna
- Quote #2: “At dawn or at night, all would visit this forest, opening their hearts and roaring out the anguish of their troubled souls. Here merry and sad folksongs, songs of rebirth and hasidic songs were sung, planting seeds of joy in young Jewish souls.” Israel Cohen, Buczacz
- Quote #3: “The children were taught religion and Hebrew in addition to other classes for four hours a day. Seventy-one of the teachers were actually Christian, and fifty-two of them were Jewish. In 1873 the Alliance Network established the first really westernized schools. The network was created in France in the 1860s, with the purpose of protecting Jewish identity and encouraging education within communities all over the world.” Alfons Levi, Salonika
With your partner, analyze each quote. What can it teach us about Jewish life in each city before the Holocaust?
Challenge students to see if they can match the quotes to the specific geographic region. What clues in the language or content can help you identify each location?
- During Viewing: Observation Charts
Create a handout where students take notes on Vienna | Buczacz | Salonika as they watch each video. Ask students to focus on categories to track: daily life, language, religious practices, architecture, occupations, relationships with non-Jewish communities. - Community Profiles
Using Canva or drawing by hand, ask students to create one-page “profiles” of each city, focusing on key characteristics:- Population/size
- Languages
- Economic roles
- Religious diversity
- Notable institutions
- Impact of Antisemitism/the Holocaust
- Legacy of Jewish life today
- Museum Exhibition
In small groups, ask students to create a virtual museum exhibit on one of the three communities. Students should include 5 objects/images and include a brief description about how each relates to Jewish life in that community before WWII.
- Understanding Diversity in the Jewish Diaspora
- How does understanding the diversity and complexity of prewar Jewish life challenge simplified narratives about Jewish identity or the Holocaust?
- Which aspect of Jewish diversity surprised you most, and why?
- Identity and Geography
- How did geographic settings shape Jewish identity differently in each location? Consider Vienna, Salonika, and Buczacz?
- If you had to move to a completely different country with a different language and culture, what aspects of your identity would be most important for you to preserve? What might you be willing to adapt or change?
- Which of the three communities was Sephardic rather than Ashkenazi?
- Salonika
- Vienna
- Buczacz
- All three were Ashkenazi
- What language was primarily spoken in Salonika’s Jewish community?
- Yiddish
- Hebrew
- Ladino
- Greek
- Approximately what percentage of Vienna’s population was Jewish by the 1930s?
- 5%
- 10%
- 20%
- 50%
- What was unique about Salonika compared to other European cities with Jewish populations?
- It had the oldest synagogue in Europe
- Jews were the majority of the population
- It had no antisemitism before the Holocaust
- Jews were forbidden from certain professions
- What does “shtetl” refer to?
- A yiddish newspaper
- A type of synagogue
- A small Eastern European town with a significant Jewish population
- A Jewish holiday
- ConnectED Resources:
- Database:
- Video: “Some Were Neighbors” USHMM