I can understand the teacher trying to "concretize" the lesson for her pupils, but her own education is lacking. Third grade children are much too young to understand that this was only an example. They still don't fully separate reality from fantasy at that age. They believe in fairy tales, that the TV stories are real, that dreams are dreams and not reality. I wonder what teacher's seminar she attended? Her psychology classes were sadly lacking.

The teacher did not compare any child with the Nazis she only used the blonde children as an example to try to prove a point. Unfortunately the children were to young to understand what she was trying to show them. I can understand a 3rd grader not getting the point but I would imagine you are old enough to understand. Evidently it isn't just the children that are clueless.

Of course, you include in the holocaust victims the SS guards who suffered flu from staying in watching towers in the cold

It is a good lesson to teach kids, but not in third grade.

You automatically assume that the teacher was a Mizrahi. This reflects more on you & the manner of your assumptions. I might remind you of the injustices experienced by the Mizrahim when they came to this country & clashed with the "modern Israeli society" that you refer to. You refer to the "serious problem" of the Mizrahi population, I would remind you that these people are as Jewish as you are & you should be aware that this country was built on them. It is high time that we come together as Jews/Israelis rather than this divisiveness, which is not desirable.

Because everytime some one gets bent out of shape over some attempt to teach, the entire process is shut down and everyone calls for blood. It's no wonder violence in schools against teachers have risen over the years. Clearly, they learn by example. Perhaps the message was too advanced for 3rd graders in the way it was conveyed but not the concept. Kudos for the teacher for trying to personalize what the Holocaust was really about rather than hiding behind books and movies. And shame on you for treat 3rd graders and immature kids who can't understand things. You'd be surprised.

The Nazis did indeed care about skin and hair color. They considered the "Perfect race" to be tall, fair skinned, blonde haired and blue eyed. To be athletic. They had a whole planned mating process to "keep the race pure". You needed the Nazi's permission to marry and procreate. I've read many stories of "non-Jewish looking" Jews surviving longer because of their looks but eventually fell victim as the Nazis' genocide became more systematic, more egregious. There was a whole "science" developed around showing the inferiority of Jews and the superiority of the Aryan race called Eugenics. Lindberg was a big proponent of this "science".

Made famous by educator Jane Elliot on documentary Blue Eyed. Harsh, but effective.

How many times must we repeat it? My sister is blond and I'm a brunette. We were both born and raised Jewish by the same Jewish parents. There is no Hebrew race either.

as a kid 40 someodd years ago we also did things like that in school. its important for kids to get a sense of what the holocaust was about. things have gotten so PC since then

It seems you erased the context of your citation in order to add your own opinionated position. The citation from the Jewish almanac says nothing about a lack of genetic connection between Jews of today and ancient Israelites. YOU added that. The book could have easily been speaking about Jewish practices between the two, or comparing that population with Moses and the Jews of Jesus' time which was the beginning population of the diaspora and related to all Jews. Ball's in your court.

In order to internalize the lesson, she showed how such an act was carried out by the Nazis and what the implications were. I welcome that type of teaching. Reading from a book does not help a student truly understand the concept. Don't add your personal biases into the story. The teacher's actions were very much akin to the early days of the Nazis and their segregation to build the "Pure Aryan Race". This was BEFORE their entry into Russian where they just killed everyone - not just Jews - on their way to Moscow. And of those 25mm killed in Russian, I doubt they were all blonde as your post seems to insinuate. Granted, the teacher could have added more context to help the kids understand it better. But it was done with the exact lesson she was trying to teach - how segregation along whatever lines aids in future discrimination.

And they occurred AFTER your 1980 Jewish Almanac citation.

That´s why you should ask authorities to stimulate Ethiopians co (re)convert to Judaism, immigrate to Israel and marry Rusim and light Aschenazim

How about that Sarah, you finally make sense!!!!

Interesting...but what the teacher did regardless of her intent was to enforce Nazi ideology/propaganda that Jews are a race and all look a particular way as opposed to a "German." She also enforced the belief that there is a disfinction between one being "German" and one being "Jewish" while there is absolutely no analogy between the two, as German is not a religion.

I wish my younger sister could see this study. She had very staunch Native American features growing up and got teased a bit growing up in Oklahoma. Now she soooo wants to be Irish rather than the mixed-breed, ethnic American human being that she will always be. And, of course, Irish history is replete with many forms of Troubles. Sometimes the glamorized Irish-American face of more recent years can be deceptive. I realize this project should have been done for kids more in their teen years, possibly even college; but I appreciate what she has done from my perch in Dallas, Texas USA. I understand the humiliation of it, however. I'd like to find more info on it.

Third grade: many are 8 years old. Some are 9. The level of cognitive development at this age DOES NOT ALLOW for the assimilation of abstraction, such as the teacher (we hope) was trying to teach. Everything is still very concrete in terms of thinking at this age. Everything is connected to the individual development of personality. The children could not comprehend the "greater" lesson, if that was the teacher's intent. WHICH IS WHY they doubted their heritage. Wow. Maybe education in Israel really IS as bas as I keep hearing... #17: the left hand exercise can help with discriminating--general classroom bullying and so forth. The Shoah is another thing entirely, and while you can draw similarities between unfair demarkation of people groups, the general teaching about "unfairness" is all that can really be comprehended. Fourth grade is about the earliest children can begin delving into abstract, critical thinking. The teacher only did damage to these students, who have either been "identified" as the "enemy" (i.e. Germans), or who have been "gifted" by the teacher with being the judges of their classmates. It's all impossibly crazy.

and could live with a Polish family and "blend in" as opposed to many (for those easily offended) "classically Jewish looking" children who had to go into hiding or were sent outright to the camps. This teacher was bringing the point home that although EQUALLY JEWISH blonde children could escape the Nazis more easily because the Nazis considered blonde hair/blue eyes/fair skin to be ideal Aryan features, however arbitrarily and unfairly that placed their fates.

How about that, you finally woke up. Sarah B has always made sense.

Sarah B only related an experience that happened to her. There is nothing wrong with her post and her comments are never stupid. Perhaps you have a problem with comprehension but if you take offense at post # 17 then you definately have a problem of some sort.

The lesson this teacher taught her pupils that children from FSU who mostly have light colored skin don't look Jewish. In the eyes of the Russian Jews it is very offensive because upon Aliyah to Israel they went through countless accusations of not being Jewish enough. For some of them it became a major reason to leave the country. Adding to this the horrible memories of Antisemitism they lived through in FSU all this story looks very unfortunate.

I am not a huge fan of the talkbacker you replied to but you might want to familiarize yourself more with childhood studies dealing with their sense of self realization. From the Clark & Clark research in the 1930-1950's (dealing with black, white & native americans) "children indicate a clear-cut preference for white and some of them evidence emotional conflict when requested to indicate a color preference. It is clear that the Negro child, by the age of five is aware of the fact that to be colored in contemporary American society is a mark of inferior status. A child accepts as early as six, seven or eight the negative stereotypes about his own group."

Nothing abstract or critical about it. The object of the exercise was to teach the children about unreasonable discrimination. By the way -- I don't know about you, but I was pretty capable of abstract and critical thinking a lot before I was eight years old. Then again, I was reading The New York Times when I was three years old, so perhaps I'm just smart.

These are little kids who were negatively affected by this teacher's presentation! She should have presented it to the principal first and ask whether he/she thought it would be a good idea. Hopefullly, the principal would have told her NOT to do it.

The only lesson those children learned was blond=German=pathology.