Alabama Social Studies SS24.HOS.3a

Social StudiesGrades 9–12Antisemitism and Pre-War Jewish Life

The Standard

SS24.HOS.3: Describe cultural, economic, and social aspects of pre-war Jewish life in Europe and explain how these aspects differed across regions.

Locate on a map pre-war centers of Jewish life, including shtetls, in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.*

2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies · Antisemitism and Pre-War Jewish Life

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students locate Jewish communities on a map of Europe before World War II. They find both large cities and shtetls, small towns with established Jewish communities.
What Mastery Looks Like: On a 1930 map, a student can locate Warsaw, Vilnius, Odessa, and Tykocin. They can identify Tykocin as a shtetl and the others as cities.
Common Misconceptions: Students may place all prewar Jewish communities in Germany or assume all Jewish people lived in shtetls. They may use current borders to place 1930 Vilnius in Lithuania, though it was under Polish control then.
How to Assess It: Give students a blank 1930 Europe map and a labeled reference map. Ask them to mark Warsaw, Vilnius, Odessa, and Tykocin, then circle the shtetl.

Lesson moves

Place pins for Warsaw, Vilnius, Odessa, and Tykocin on a wall map of 1930 Europe.
Ask students to write two sentences comparing the locations of Warsaw and Tykocin on the map.
In pairs, take turns locating four named communities on blank 1930 maps, then check each answer against an atlas.
Use a current map to find Vilnius, then compare its country label with a 1930 map.

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