Teacher’s Study Guide

This study guide is designed to be given to students in advance of the presentation to help them grapple with some key concepts from history and orient them to Roger Grunwald’s short play, The Mitzvah.

Each section of the guide poses a question and offers suggested topics for further discussion and inquiry.

  • Additional viewing provides links to videos that delve deeper into the topics covered on that particular page.

  • Art imitates life references particular elements in Roger’s play. 

  • “Did you know” offers short factoids and a “challenge” that is just that–a challenge.

Additional helpful resources

These links will take you to the publications’ websites

“How did the Nazi’s gain power in Germany?”

For more on the Nazi death camps

For more on the mobile killing squads

Post-presentation: Additional questions for students

The Mitzvah Project covers very difficult territory. For that reason, it is important for students have time to process what they have been exposed to. We have designed the following two activities for that purpose.

First suggestion: break down the class into groups of three to five students. Ask each group to address the following questions:

  • Did you know about the Holocaust before the presentation? If so, what do you remember hearing or learning? 

  • Did anything you learned through the presentation surprise you? If so, what?

  • Why do you think it’s important for young people today to know about the Holocaust? 

  • Were there specific parts of the performance, talk or Q&A that impacted you? 

  • Do you see a connection between any of the things you learned and what is happening today and, if so, what?

  • There were a lot of difficult topics covered in the project, yet there was also a message of hope. Was there a particular element that gave you hope? What was it and why did it give you hope? 

Once students have discussed the above questions in groups, have one or two students from each group present their ideas to the class.

Ask the students if they would like to write a short letter of 100-200 words to the presenter. You can have them do this by hand or on a computer. Here are some questions that might help guide them.

  • Do you have a personal (or family) experience you want to share with the presenter that relates to any of the topics he brought up? 

  • What resonated most with you and why?

  • Is there something you would like to ask the presenter that you did not ask during the presentation? 

  • What was the most important thing you learned from the program and why is it important to you?