Etta began by asking participants to introduce themselves and describe what they knew about Freedom Summer.

Miriam Cantor-Stone: Hi everyone! My name is Miriam Cantor-Stone, I'm the Education Program Assistant here at JWA. If you have any questions or problems during the OLP, you can email me at mcantor-stone@jwa.org or call me at 617-383-6762
Yuliya Mazur: Hi, I am Yuliya Mazur. Not a formal educator, but a amatuer one.
Etta King: Hello Everyone! I am the Education Program Manager here at the Jewish Women's Archive. So glad you could join us here.
Jennifer Steinberg: Hi all—I'm on Siegel JCC Adult Education Committee and we were talking the other day about trying to have a class on this topic for our Fall semester
Miriam Eichler: I don't have a very fast internet connection, so I'll have to see if this works. I'm a former Education Director and now on an education committee in a different Central NJ temple.
Yuliya Mazur: Hi Jennifer, Nice to see a JCC educator here :-)
Marilyn Heiss: Hi all. I'm Marilyn Heiss, a Jewish educator based in San Francisco. I try to bring the Jewish role in the Civil Rights movement into my classes at least once during the year. I find my students are really interested in this.
Yuliya Mazur: nothing :-(
Jennifer Steinberg: I have seen pictures but don't know specifics...
Miriam Eichler: Two of the young men killed then had connections to women who lived or worked in the town where I grew up—New Rochelle, NY.

Next, Etta gave a brief introduction of Freedom Summer to prepare participants for the activities in the Freedom Summer lesson plan.

Marilyn Heiss: I really like this timeline—haven't seen this before. It's really focused.
Miriam Eichler: This map is very helpful!
Marilyn Heiss: You can find one of the literacy tests online and it's really good to use in the classroom. I think there's a link to it on the lesson page in Living the Legacy.
Miriam Cantor-Stone: Here's the link to the lesson plan, and there's a comment that includes a link to a sample literacy test among other resources.
Miriam Cantor-Stone: American Experience: Freedom Summer
Marilyn Heiss: The PBS series “Jewish-Americans” also has a good segment on this. It's in part 4 and you can find it on YouTube.

Participants were asked to imagine themselves to be prospective Freedom Summer volunteers, and think about why they would decide to volunteer. They were then told to place themselves in one of four quadrants of motivation: the Holocaust, a similar feeling of being an outsider, social justice, or some other experience or values.

Jennifer Steinberg: Jewish values of social justice
Miriam Eichler: Jewish values of social justice
Yuliya Mazur: The Holocaust
Marilyn Heiss: Remembering that it's 1964, the experience of the Holocaust is still fresh.
Miriam Eichler: Where I lived, in New Rochelle, we experienced the first and only case of de-facto school segregation (Lincoln School --99.x % black)
Miriam Eichler: (In the North)
Marilyn Heiss: I think it's something we can relate to today, that we have social justice values that we may not realize that are part of Jewish tradition.
Jennifer Steinberg: Makes me think about my own family's tradition of social action but it was more assumed that we would do it, it didn't come from being Jewish necessarily
Marilyn Heiss: This shows the holocaust experience is so real. There's a quote in the PBS Jewish American show when a Freedom Summer participant is quoted as saying to her parents, “if someone had done this in Germany, your parents would be alive”
Marilyn Heiss: It doesn't matter as the motivation, the action will motivate more thought to look to where the source of the action—a nice spiral :)
Jennifer Steinberg: I spend a lot of time interacting with those in the NextGen age group and for them today, it's about connecting those dots—I imagine that experience is not foreign from the experience of these women from when they were young.

Miriam Eichler: I knew Carolyn Goodman, Andrew's mother. Carolyn, who lived in Manhattan, went on to fight for justice for decades after her son was murdered.

Next, Etta introduced the concept of document study, and asked the participants to read several quotes about Freedom Summer, feelings of the North vs. South, and more.

Marilyn Heiss: I love “The South is a battle field: The North is in a stalemate, For us, it's all intolerable” Reminds us it's not just one region.
Jennifer Steinberg: “I'm involved in this for my own freedom”—the idea that the South that existed at that time was not the South that white people living there thought/knew it could be.
Miriam Eichler: “The North is a stalemate”—yes, we tended to ignore incidents of racial injustice elsewhere in the country, attributing the main issue to the “South”.
Miriam Eichler: Even in the latter part of the 20th c. a friend, traveling through Idaho, told us the story of seeing a sign on the door of a fast-food chain that “no Jews or Blacks are welcome”
Miriam Cantor-Stone: “Sing a New Song: Jews, Music, and the Civil Rights Movement”
Miriam Cantor-Stone: Jews, Music, and the Civil Rights Movement OLP Session Recording and Materials
Marilyn Heiss: This is actually great, since I'm sure I'm not alone is sometimes only have an hour or 50 minutes for a class

Participants then listened to an except of an interview with Freedom Summer volunteer Vicki Gabriner, where she speaks about being in a church while another group waits outside. The two groups were divided by color, space, and values. With which community do you think Vicki, as a Jewish Freedom Summer volunteer, most identified with? What does she have in common with each group? What do you think were some things that were important in connecting people and forming communities during the Civil Rights movement?

Miriam Eichler: The one in the church
Marilyn Heiss: But it's the tension of having a foot in both worlds that contributes to the intensity.
Miriam Eichler: Getting to know each other on a personal level, even for only a brief time.
Marilyn Heiss: I think the visual element—seeing black and white faces in one place--which was more unusual in that place and time
Jennifer Steinberg: Becoming part of the inside community—I imagine that the early moments were spent gaining the trust and confidence of the people you were there to help
Marilyn Heiss: And on the other hand, there is the reality that there were those in the Jewish community who wouldn't put up those in the freedom summer, because they were scared- they would have to live with the consequences after the students left.

Participants then read a letter from a young volunteer in Oxford, OH named Sylvie to her family. Participants were then invited to respond as Sylvie's parent on a lino board.

Miriam Cantor-Stone: Lino Board
Miriam Eichler: I can't help relating this to how Holocaust victims & resistance fighters must have felt.
Jennifer Steinberg: These sources made me curious if women from my own college participated, still looking but I found this http://350cr.blogs.brynmawr.edu —interesting way of incorporating these primary source documents
Marilyn Heiss: I teach 7—9th graders and this is history that they don't know. Having the primary sources really brings it alive.
Marilyn Heiss: The good part of this era that there is so much audio/video to show, makes it more real.
Miriam Eichler: We have a large community of immigrants, some here “illegally”, in Central NJ. There is now an effort being made to help them organize re. social justice issues.
Jennifer Steinberg: It's a “blog” with entries from 1964... fascinating.
Marilyn Heiss: Yes, Miriam, the link to the immigration issues now really brings some of this home.
Jennifer Steinberg: Most of the people I work with were college students or adults during this time—now i'm wondering if any of our students took part.
Etta King: http://soallcanvote.org/
Miriam Cantor-Stone: https://www.facebook.com/groups/12588745070/ — here's the link to our Facebook group, please join!
Miriam Eichler: Thank you!