Celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) celebrates Jewish American Heritage Month by honoring and highlighting the diverse culture, heritage, and contributions of Jewish Americans throughout history. Jewish American Heritage Month is nationally recognized and serves as an opportunity to honor and celebrate the traditions, food, art, languages, people, culture, and stories of these communities. We encourage our community to study, observe, and celebrate the Jewish American community on campus, within the Worcester community, and beyond. 

Jewish American Heritage Month originated in 1980 when Congress passed a resolution, which authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation designating April 21-28, 1980, as Jewish Heritage Week. Following a series of annual presidential proclamations designating a week in April or May of each year as Jewish Heritage Week, President George W. Bush proclaimed May as Jewish American Heritage Month on April 20, 2006. The proclamation began with efforts by the Jewish Museum of Florida and South Florida Jewish community leaders that resulted in resolutions introduced by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. These resolutions urged the president to proclaim a month that would recognize the rich history of Jews in America and the more than 350-year history of Jewish contributions to American society. The resolutions passed unanimously, first in the House of Representatives in December 2005 and in the Senate in February 2006. 

Stem Scholar Highlights:  

• Michael Kaplan (former NASA space engineer) 
• Ada Yonath (Biochemist) 

• Robert Aumann (Mathematician)  

   

Read, Watch, Listen and Learn 

• Explore and visit the following Jewish Musuems and museums with Jewish content:  
  • Skirball Musuem  
  • United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  • Immigration Museum NYC | Tenement Museum 
  • The Jewish Museum  
  • Jewish Museum of Maryland 
  • Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience 
  • Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History 
• Explore archives and library collections: 
  • American Jewish Committee Oral History Collection | The New York Public Library 
  • Center for Jewish History 
  • Rauh Jewish Archives 
  • Library Special Collections - Jewish Theological Seminary  
  • Jewish Women's Archive  
  • National Center for Jewish Film  
• Read books from Jewish authors and about Jewish culture.  
• Listen to the Unorthodox podcast 
  • Each week we bring you News of the Jews, interesting guests—one Jewish and one gentile—and so much more. 
• Listen to the Vox Tablet podcast  
  • Host Sara Ivry explores Jewish life & culture through lively conversations with writers, musicians, chefs, and theologians.  
• Explore resources online via the Gordon Library 
• Explore and read Jewish publications: 
  • Tablet
  • Lilith
  • Tikkun
  • The Forward
• Explore The Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center’s Digital Library & Archives 
  • Visiting options will be available in Summer 2024 in Boston, MA.  

Act 

• Register to Vote -OR- Check Your Voter Registration  
• Everything you need to vote. Vote.org   
• Become a Poll Worker 
• Support WPI’s Hillel organization.  
• Support The Jewish Faculty, Staff, Administrators, and Allies employee resource group at WPI.
  • For more information, contact Michelle Ephraim or Bwann Gwann. 
• Connect with a Campus Chaplain.

The Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Multicultural Education (ODIME) promotes and oversees all student-facing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) learning experiences, programs, services, trainings, and initiatives for WPI.