Discover the global events and personal stories of January

John F. Kennedy and Service

COMPELLING QUESTION: What does it mean to live a life of service? Why is Kennedy’s emphasis on service to the greater community and world important today?

Description: Students will work in groups to better understand the reasoning behind President John F. Kennedy’s emphasis on service in creating government programs such as the Peace Corps. Students will research different kinds of service in the world today: service in their community, government service, military service, etc. and create a short “Ask Not” video making the case for the value of a particular kind of service. 

Video Series: Introduction and Overview – The Shapell Roster of Jewish Service in the American Civil War

Video Series: Soldier-Sailor Page, Part I – Overview and Military Service Section

Video Series: Soldier-Sailor Page, Part II – Documentation and Sources Section

The Centennial of the Women’s Right to Vote: The Presidential Election of 1920

With the Help of New Women Voters, Harding Wins in a Landslide – But Still Sees the Presidency as a Prison Term

Abraham Lincoln and the Jews

COMPELLING QUESTION: What were Abraham Lincoln’s attitudes toward religious minorities such as Jews and Catholics and how did it differ from others at the time?

Description: Students will work in groups to plan a temporary exhibit intended for visitors to a historic site or museum related to Abraham Lincoln. The exhibit will concern Abraham Lincoln’s attitude toward religious minorities. Students will analyze primary sources and select three they would like to include in their exhibit. From analyzing their sources, students will develop a “thesis” or argument that the exhibit will convey to their audience.

Mourning And Black Edged Stationery

When Vice Presidents Become President

The Bicentennial of Herman Melville’s Birth

It wasn’t until he visited the Holy Land and wrote the longest poem in American literature about it, though, that he  gave up the idea of ever publishing again. He was finished: Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land did him in.

A Radio Play Script: Cresson and the Dove, by Yaacov Shavit

The Revolutions of 1848, the Jews, and the American Civil War

Simon Wolf: Patriot, Activist, and Statesman

Field Trip: Research On Site At Jewish Cemeteries With The Shapell Roster Research Team

Visiting Jewish cemeteries is a fruitful, and more adventurous way the research team can identify new Jewish soldiers to add to the Shapell Roster. Many military men have their service proudly displayed on their tombstones, making new additions a walk in the park for our researchers. But even markers without such obvious information can yield new discoveries.

International Man of Mystery — Colonel Frederick George d’Utassy

Read Across America Day – Mark Twain Lists His Favorite Books For Children, and Himself

It’s noble to teach oneself, Mark Twain once remarked, but still nobler to teach others – and less trouble.

The 1918 Flu Pandemic, Pres. Woodrow Wilson, and the Paris Peace Conference

Jewish Union Soldiers Who Fought In The American Civil War By Place Of Birth

Enlistment Locations Of Jewish Soldiers Who Fought For the Union In The American Civil War

Franklin Roosevelt and the End of American Isolationism

President Hayes’s Lifelong Friendship With a Jewish Soldier

Religion in the Civil War: The Jewish High Holidays

Mark Twain and the Adams Colony

American colonists followed preacher George J. Adams from New England to Ottoman-ruled Palestine on a messianic mission to prepare the Holy Land for the return of the Jews. “We are going to become practical benefactors of the land and the people,” Adams stated, “to take the lead in developing its great resources.” A year after arriving, some of these impoverished colonists wanted a ticket home. It was at that moment that author Mark Twain came to town while on a five-month pleasure trip through Europe and the Middle East.

When Historic Figures Throw Shade

 

Shapell Roster Contributor, Richard Kane of Wisconsin

1st Lieutenant Ferdinand Linz: Honoring His Contribution to Our Society

August Bondi, Jewish Soldier and Fighter for Freedom

Theodore Roosevelt and the 1912 Election: What Happened & Why Did Roosevelt Run?

COMPELLING QUESTION: What qualities did Teddy Roosevelt possess that made his third party campaign appealing to voters? 

Description: It’s October of 1912 and Theodore Roosevelt is in the hospital after being shot while giving a campaign speech. Students will play the role of campaign advisors and work in groups to better understand Roosevelt and the election by analyzing primary sources. Then each group will create a campaign poster promoting Roosevelt’s candidacy. Students will consider what the key issues are in the election and how their poster will attract voters to Roosevelt’s campaign.

VIDEO: In Discussion with Professors Deborah Dash Moore and Adam D. Mendelsohn – Discoveries from the Shapell Roster

Jewish Medal Of Honor Recipients From The Civil War

Marcus Spiegel: From Conservative Democrat to “Strong Abolitionist”

My Three Soldiers: Eliza Heilbrun’s Quest for a Pension

How Mark Twain Became Famous: Speak Your Truth

Only 15-Years-Old and Anchors Aweigh: Lee Rothschild’s Escape Into the US Navy

Little Phil: the Unseen Heroism and Struggles of a Civil War Soldier

Dankmar Adler: Courage, Architecture, and the American Dream

Brother Against Brother: Abraham Jonas’s Sons

Lost in Hebrew Translations

Edmund Louis Gray Zalinski: Soldier, Scholar, Inventor

Hiding in Plain Sight – Why Some Jewish American Soldiers Served Under an Alias

Lincoln Reunites Immigrant Son with His Family

Memorial Day 2022

Jimmy Carter, 39th US President

The Most Common Surnames Of Jewish Civil War Soldiers In the Union

By Regiment: Jewish Union Soldiers In The Civil War

Unique Service Occupations: Jewish Union Soldiers In The American Civil War

Manuscripts Related To Jewish American Civil War Soldiers

VIDEO: History Lessons – Working with Original Manuscripts in the Contemporary Classroom

A New Book By Adam D. Mendelsohn – “Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army”

Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army by Adam D. Mendelsohn (NYU Press—November 15th, 2022) asks, what was it like to be a Jew in Lincoln’s armies? The Union army was as diverse as the embattled nation it sought to preserve, a unique mixture of ethnicities, religions, and identities. Almost one Union soldier in four was born abroad, and natives and newcomers fought side-by-side, sometimes uneasily. Yet though scholars have parsed the trials and triumphs of Irish, Germans, African Americans, and others in the Union ranks, they have remained largely silent on the everyday experiences of the largest non-Christian minority to have served.

Western Gambler “Ike” Isaacs’ Tombstone Gaming License Signed By Sheriff Johnny Behan

Map of Illinois, 1845

Harry Truman’s Post-Presidential Recollections

American Tourists in the Holy Land, 1865-1900

COMPELLING QUESTIONS: How were Americans able to visit the “Holy Land” in increasing numbers in the 1865-1900 period? What reasons did they have for going?

Description: Students take on the role of running a travel business in the United States in the 1880s. Their business will advertise travel itineraries to the “Holy Land,” (then called Ottoman Palestine, present-day Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territory). Using primary sources and secondary sources as their “guide” students will develop a reason for traveling, the route and transportation, and where they will visit. Students will work in groups to create a brochure or other advertisement complete with travel posters, tickets, and maps that will communicate the travelers’ motivation for taking the trip (alternatively, teachers may have students create a digital brochure or advertisement or a tour using Google Earth).

Presidential Checks

A Final Roar: In One of His Last Letters, Theodore Roosevelt Blasts Woodrow Wilson

Early Variant of Executive Mansion Card Signed by American President Millard Fillmore

Mark Twain Excoriates Theodore Roosevelt as a Butcher, a Ruffian and a Bully

President Ronald Reagan on Challenges: “The Best Days Are Always the Ones that Lie Ahead.”

William McKinley Invites Old Friend to Go with Him to His Gubernatorial Inauguration: “Don’t fail me.”

The Alfred Dreyfus Degradation Ceremony – Paris, France

The Dreyfus Affair was “one of the great commotions of history. ” It began in 1894 against a backdrop of espionage and antisemitism, when Jewish French Army captain, Alfred Dreyfus, was wrongly convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Mark Twain on His Book “Innocents Abroad;” His Lectures, and Awful Photos of Him

An Early and Rare Account by Orville Wright of the First Flight at Kitty Hawk

Ben-Gurion: Had a Jewish State Been Established in 1937, Millions of Jews Would Not Have Died in the Holocaust

Abraham Lincoln Carte-de-Visite Photo By Mathew Brady of Which Lincoln Said “I Look Most Like That One”

Abraham Lincoln Signed Photo: The “Solitary Pine Pose,” From the January 8, 1864 Sitting

Lincoln Interjects Himself Into a Case of Two Jewish Merchants Charged With Selling Goods to Blockaders

Olivia Clemens Quotes “Mr. Clemens” – Mark Twain – About a Phrase in “Following the Equator”

President Harry Truman Says “It Will Be a Relief to Get Out of Washington” At the End of His Term

President-Elect James K. Polk Anxiously Queries His Tailor About New Clothes for His Inauguration

A Very Rare President Warren G. Harding Signed Check

Exceptional Association Copy: Simon Wolf’s “Presidents I Have Known” Inscribed to Robert Todd Lincoln

Franklin D. Roosevelt Thanks His Secretary of War for a “Delightful Old Book of Abraham Lincoln’s Debates”

Benjamin Mordecai, Jewish Benefactor of Confederate Cause Honored by the Famed Palmetto Riflemen

President-Elect Harding Refers to His Upcoming Term as “Imprisonment in the White House”

Alfred Dreyfus Writes to Emile Zola’s Widow to Commemorate the Anniversary of the Publication of “J’Accuse”

The 100th Commemoration of the Death of Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt, having wanted his whole life to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral, finally got at least half of his wish when, on January 8, 1919, he was buried, quietly, in his parish church in Oyster Bay. Reporters watching as President Wilson read the message that Roosevelt had died, swore he broke into a wide transcendent smile. Why, is the story told here, in one of the very last letters Roosevelt ever wrote…

At the End of His Life, Albert Einstein Writes Check to His Beloved Hebrew University

Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday: JFK on Jefferson

President Kennedy laments he hasn’t time to write about Thomas Jefferson, and then carefully does so.

From Prison, a Defiant Alfred Dreyfus Writes to his Family Swearing to Clear His Name

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. Tells Emanuel Hertz He Will Always Try to Justify His Good Opinion

Abraham Lincoln Recommends a Franklin Pierce White House Appointee to General Benjamin Butler

A Wyatt Earp Autograph Letter Signed: An Incredible Rarity

Truman Accepts the Resignation of His “Good Right Hand,” Dean Acheson

Mark Twain Can’t Remember Recent Things But Vividly Recalls His Hannibal Courier Co-Workers

Camille Pissarro Protests Alfred Dreyfus’s Conviction

Napoleon Bonaparte Authorizes a Soldier to Join the Egyptian Campaign in Syria

Mourning Daughter Susy, Mark Twain Describes His Family Life as Adrift, Indifferent, and Derelict

Lincoln Asks General Grant as a Friend, for a Favor: Find a Place for His Son, Robert, on His Staff

Lincoln Asks Grant, Not As President But As a Friend, For a Favor: Find a Place For His Son, Robert, on His Staff

Lincoln may have been hailed, during the Civil War, as the Father of the Nation, but at home, with his eldest son Robert, Lincoln was mostly the President of the United States.

Mark Twain Lists His Favorite Books For Children – And Himself

A New Presidency: The First 100 Days

Truman on Kennedy: inexperienced and hopeful.

William T. Sherman Recalls His Trip to the Levant, and Teases His Lady Friend About Harem Life

On His First Day in Office, “Jack” Kennedy Thanks His Predecessor, Eisenhower, for a Smooth Transition

Einstein on Zionism: He is for a Jewish Homeland, But Not a Separate State

Third Term President Roosevelt Writes to Harry Woodring: “Our Democratic Way Of Life Is At Stake”

Harry Truman, From His Place of “Terrible Responsibility,” Analyzes the Press

President William McKinley’s Appointment of the Antisemitic Selah Merrill as Consul at Jerusalem

Herman Melville “Disinters,” a Rare Copy of “Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land” to Send it to an Admirer

President Cleveland Supports Washington’s Leading Jewish Charitable Organization’s “Israelites Fair” – An Affair Headed by Simon Wolf

Chaim Weizmann to Lorna Wingate on the Jewish Brigade: “There is No Shortcut to Jerusalem”

Einstein: “Jewish Smarts Serve One Well”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt Adjudicates an Intergovernmental Turf War

Abraham Lincoln Exercises Clemency: “Let This Boy Be Discharged”

Autograph Letter of Astronaut Judy Resnik-Killed in the Challenger Disaster-About Autographs

Albert Einstein Disagrees with Louis Brandeis; Argues that Palestine is Not the Key to Jewish Survival

Grant Finds Egypt More Interesting Than Any Other Place He Has Visited

President-Elect Lincoln Grows His Beard: This Second Photograph, Signed, Depicts the Progress

David Ben-Gurion Compares, Favorably, the Fledgling IDF to George Washington’s Revolutionary Army

The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

Schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe Writes About Her Excitement Going into Space on the Ill-Fated Challenger.
On January 28, 1986, the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 11:38 EST and, 73 seconds into its flight, exploded nine miles above the Atlantic Ocean. All seven crew members were killed, including 37 year-old McAuliffe, who had been selected from 11,000 applicants to be a “Teacher in Space.” Largely because of her presence, some 17% of Americans watched the live coverage of the launch.

Famous Mark Twain Aphorism About Deserving Honors

Jewish General Edward S. Salomon Accepts an Invitation to Meet With His Old Comrades-in-Arms

President William McKinley Signs Executive Mansion Card on His 55th Birthday

The Holocaust

Manuscripts exploring the mounting dangers before the Holocaust, the devastation it wrought, and the way the Jewish people both resisted in the face of the Holocaust, and re-established their homeland in the wake of it.

Scarce President Calvin Coolidge Autographed Letter Signed as President

The Anniversary of the Funeral of the Apollo I Astronauts

President Lyndon B. Johnson writes to the parents of astronauts killed in the Apollo I disaster.

Twain Asks His Young “Quaker City” Shipmate & Favorite, Emma Beach, For Help With His Articles About the Voyage

Lyndon B. Johnson on the Death of an Astronaut in the Apollo I Fire

Lyndon B. Johnson Writes to the Parents of Astronaut Gus Grissom, Killed in the Apollo I Fire