ADL Publishes Teachers Guide to Correct Treatment of Jews in American History Textbooks

The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith announced the publication today of a new teachers guide intended to correct deficiencies and stereotypes in the treatment of Jews in American history textbooks. The 215-page illustrated book titled “Jews in American History: A Teachers Guide,” by Jerome L. Ruderman, was prepared in response to a 1970 ADL study that found American history texts continued to slight the role of Jews in American history, primarily by omission, and sometimes gratuitously identified Jews as such, the ADL said.

According to the author, who heads the social studies department at Simon Gratz High School in Philadelphia and is a member of the advisory board of Scholastic Search magazine, the new guide offers social studies teachers a complete plan for integrating the Jewish experience and contributions in building this nation with the overall history curriculum, the ADL announcement said. It casts the story of American Jews in light of eight American eras and themes: The Colonial World; Revolution and Civic Equality; Building a National Identity; Westward Expansion; Civil War and Reconstruction; The New Immigration; The Era of Two World Wars; and Today.