We’re inspiring new generations to appreciate their heritage and the lives of their ancestors.
The Jewish Roots Project
Did you ever wonder about the lives of your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and other generations?
Middle and High School youth are invited to participate in this program, which offers support and guidance in the pursuit of greater knowledge and understanding of their roots. Periodically, the student projects will be reviewed by the GTJCP Education Team and participants will receive commendations for their efforts.
Students will be invited through local organizations including: the Jewish Community Center (JCC), area synagogues and religious schools, Abrams Hebrew Academy, youth programs of Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County (JFCS), and others.
Click for program description and activities: jewish roots_2021.
Five project structures are recommended, linked to specifics:
- Recording Our Family Stories — Students are encouraged to “interview” their grandparents, aunts, uncles to learn the family story. The questions below are a guideline, feel free to add your own. […]
- Families of Jewish Trenton — So much family history is contained in our historic Jewish cemeteries. Because families tended to be buried together, it is easy to connect relatives to each other and to the period in which they lived. This research project will pair interested students with members of the GTJCP Genealogy Task Force who will help them find the historic documents necessary to flesh out the lives of these families. […]
- Family Tree — Students with an interest in researching their family history will work with living relatives and historic documents to create a family tree. […]
- Honoring Through Social Media — Social media has become a mechanism for telling stories. TikTok, Facebook and Instagram are used to share opinions and spread messages. This project brings history to life by creating a social media presence for a person/topic. […]
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Trenton Jewish History through the Arts — After researching a part of the history of Jewish Trenton – a person, a place, an incident, a time period, a building, an organization, etc. – students will be given the opportunity to create a performance, a presentation or an artistic representation to become part of a travelling history exhibit.[…]
Additional research resources are linked here.
Accepted media formats:
Students may use one or a combination of the following media for their projects:
- Written report with or without images included, saved as a .pdf
- Illustration or photography (.jpg format only)
- Charts or tables for family trees or listings of data findings, saved as a .pdf
- Video (.mp4 or .mov format only) or audio files
- Any real or imagined social media exchanges should be submitted as screen shots inserted into a document and saved as a .pdf
If you have questions about this program, you may contact Beverly Weinstein: weinstein.family [at] verizon.net
For genealogy coaching and support, you may contact Art Finkle: afinkle221 [at] verizon.net, or Art Levner: artlevner [at] gmail.com
How to submit your project:
Your project should be emailed to education [at] gtjcp.org and must include:
- Your name, address, age, grade, school, phone number, email address
- Title and description of which project topic you selected
- Parent, caregiver and/or teacher’s name, and how you learned about this education project
The program is organized by the GTJCP Education Team in collaboration with the Trenton Jewish Historical Society, JFCS, the Board of Rabbis and the Religious Schools Principals Council.
It was developed by a group of volunteers including Lynne Azarchi, Celeste Albert, Art Finkle, Gary Fox, Arthur Levner, Anne Berman Waldorf, and Beverly Weinstein.