Reflection of Jewish Culture in various Landmarks in NYC

The final assignment for this course will be the completion of a 10 page (12-point font, double-spaced, normal margins) guidebook for tourist of Jewish New York in which students will choose a particular historical theme, identify five or more locations related to that theme in New York, and write a historical guide of these landmarks for travelers who want to become more informed about New York City’s Jewish history. This assignment should incorporate class readings but should also reflect significant research using sources beyond the course syllabus. Top marks will be given to guidebooks that include primary source research. In Week 4, the class will be visiting the Center for Jewish History (CJH), the largest archival collection of Jewish historical materials in New York. Students are strongly encouraged to use the materials from the CJH’s collections in incorporating primary source materials for their guidebook. Further instruction on this assignment will be given throughout the semester.
*** At least 3 primary sources and total of 8-10 sources.

Mapping Jewish New York; A Walking History of Jewish New York

Professor Aaron Welt

Spring 2020 Semester

Guide for Completing Jewish New York Tour Book – Final Assignment

Due Date: Monday May 25^th by 12:00 pm noon. 

For your final assignment, you should complete a Jewish New York Tour Book that explores a particular theme in the history of Jewish New York. This assignment should be approximately 10 pages in length (doubled-spaced, using 12-point font, and with normal margins) or around 2500 words.

You should provide an introduction that explains your theme and gives a brief overview of that theme’s importance to the history of Jewish New York. Use this introduction to demonstrate your wealth of knowledge on the subject and in American Jewish history generally. The bulk of the Tour Book should be an exploration of at least 5 distinct landmarks related to that theme. Each landmark should be accompanied by short histories, explaining the historical importance of those landmarks. Like the Introduction, use these landmarks sections to demonstrate the research, work, and effort you have put into this assignment. You can choose to cover more than 5 landmarks, but at least 5 must be related to your theme. These 5 landmarks should also be distinct from the ones you covered in your Landmark Assignments; you may choose to include those sites that you already covered in those assignments, but at least five must be new places or locations that you have not yet written about. However, the 5 minimum landmarks can include locations we visited at the beginning of the semester. Feel free to include pictures or other materials that you think might assist the reader in learning about your landmarks and locations.

To get an A on this assignment, at least one primary source should be used. The websites and data bases we explored during the last class will be helpful in tracking down primary sources.

Please be sure to provide citations for the information you give. You can use any citation method you want (here is a link for Chicago Manual of Style citations) but please keep them consistent throughout the assignment. Be sure to proofread and please, use normal margins!

No extensions on this assignment will be granted. Monday, May 25^th is the hard deadline for submitting this assignment. Late assignments will be deducted a full letter grade for every 24-hours the assignment is overdue. No assignments will be received after 11:59 PM, the evening of Wednesday, May 27^th and if I have not received the assignment by then it will incur an automatic failure.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns – I look forward to reading all of your Tour Books!