16 Online Resources to Support Your High Holiday Curriculum

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are just around the corner! We know the beginning of the year is a busy time for teachers, so we rounded up all the best videos, websites, apps and more to help you make the High Holidays meaningful for your students. Whether you teach 12th grade or Kindergarten, there’s something here for your classroom.

Rosh Hashanah Video Roundup from the Jewish Women’s Archive
Want to get your students excited for the High Holidays? This video roundup has something for everyone, from Rosh Hashanah themed covers of pop songs to a shofar flash mob and a poetic interpretation of Psalm 27.

High Holiday Resources from Gateways
This website has some great visualizations of the holiday blessings, prayers, and customs. You could even take this tool further and have the students draw their own after they’ve seen some examples.

High Holiday Playlist on Spotify
Get your class into the High Holiday mood with these songs. You can have them analyze the lyrics or even write their own song about what the start of a new year means to them.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Resources from the History Channel
These short videos on different topics would be great for a flipped classroom or rotations. There’s also a Rosh Hashanah photo gallery and information about the holidays students can read online.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Videos from Israel365
These videos are great for introducing young learners to the High Holidays, and would be great supplements to an in-class activity or project.

Rosh Hashanah: Happy New Year! Playlist from Shalom Sesame
Who doesn’t love Shalom Sesame? This series of videos can be used to teach young students about the New Year, the shofar, and the meaning of saying "sorry."

Rosh Hashanah Video Series from Aleph Beta Academy
This series presents the question, “How Do I Become Close To God?” and proceeds to answer that question with four videos on High Holiday topics. We recommend that teachers watch the videos first to get ideas, speak with students about the deep questions posed in the videos, or have students ask their own questions, and then have the students watch the videos.

Book of Good Life Video from The Maccabeats
This song has become a High Holiday classic, but it’s not just for teachers to enjoy! There’s some really great symbolism in the video, and students will enjoy looking at the meaning of the lyrics as well.

Video of Slichot at the Kotel
If you’re going for dramatic effect in your classroom, then this is the resource you want to introduce the themes of the High Holidays. This incredible video shows thousands and thousands of Jews praying at the Kotel. It’s simply breathtaking and we think you’re students will be moved too.

Rosh Hashanah Rap and High Holiday “Car Wash” Videos from Aish.com
These are fun videos for high school students! The rap introduces some themes of Rosh Hashanah, and the “Car Wash” video is a funny and entertaining metaphor for what one goes through on the High Holidays.

High Holiday Assessment Tools from MyJewishLearning and Quizlet
Once you’ve made it through your High Holiday lessons, assess your students’ learning with these great quizzes. Note: On Quizlet, just type in the name of the holiday in the search box  at the top and you’ll find dozens of pre-made quizzes to give to your students! You could even have them do a follow-up assignment in which they research the questions they didn’t know answers to.

Yom Kippur Lessons from the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland
This new interactive website is designed to teach children in grades 4-7 about the concept of teshuvah. There are also videos students can watch to learn about the major High Holiday prayers.

Resources on Jewish Diversity on the High Holidays from Be’chol Lashon
Help your students discover Jewish diversity with these stories of High Holiday celebrations from around the world.

Complete Guide to Rosh Hashanah from NJOP
This guide is very comprehensive, so you can break it into smaller sections for students to read, depending on what your learning goals are for a particular lesson.

High Holiday Social Justice Resources from the Religious Action Center
If you’re teaching tikkun olam this year, then you’ll want this great website for your classroom. There are ready-to-use text study PDFs as well as information students can read about the connections between the High Holidays and social justice.

High Holiday Apps from RustyBrick, BimBam (formerly G-dcast), and Pocket Torah
The RustyBrick app will help your students to learn the different sounds of the shofar. The interactive Rosh Hashanah story app from G-dcast will get young learners excited about the holidays. Last but not least, if you have students who will be reading Torah during the High Holidays, they can use the Pocket Torah app to practice and review.

Yonah Kirschner, former Project Manager, Digital Content and Communications at The Jewish Education Project.

This is an updated version of a post that was originally published on DigitalJLearning.org in August 2015.