For general understanding about modern Israel, its neighborhood, its people, and the thousands of years of connection between the land and the Jewish people, see the guidance offered for adults. Learning is a lifelong pursuit, and the tools available here work for all ages.
But let’s look at some examples of how you might use the site for school:
Research Papers
What if I don’t know my subject?
No matter your academic level, you’re likely to find yourself in a class where the instructor tells you to research and write about something specific you choose within the broad area you’re studying during the quarter, semester or year. CIE’s website is a great place to find a relevant subject.
Try reading through our overviews of Eras I (through 1897) and II (1898 to 1948) to see what interests you. You can access them from any page by hovering over Explore & Learn and clicking on an Era.
You also can peruse the primary sources available for any Era, an important consideration for a research paper, by hovering over Explore & Learn, clicking on All Types, then clicking on Documents and Sources from the list. The main Documents and Sources page is divided by Era.
Another good starting point is our collection of Explainer Articles under the Type of Issues and Analyses. These overviews of specific Topics (posted as Themes in our old website) provide key history and insights, plus some initial links, to provide the knowledge you need to make a choice. If you are more of a visual learner, we also have Explainer Videos under Video and Audio.
If your assignment involves showcasing a particular person, be sure to click on Biographies under By Type to find hundreds of possibilities.
OK, I think I know my subject. Now what?
The best starting point is a Topic search. Hover over Explore & Learn in the navigation bar at the top of the homepage. If the subject of your research falls within one of the five Topics in the dropdown menu, click on it. Otherwise, click on All Topics. On the Explore By Topics page, scroll through the dozens of alphabetical options until you find your exact topic or, more likely, a broad topic that might include the subject of your paper. Don’t worry about guessing wrong about the best Topic; you can always try another Topic. And we try to place posts in multiple relevant Topics, not just one, so you should have many paths to what you need.
Say you want information about sports in the Jewish community of Palestine before Israel became a state in May 1948. You won’t find Sports as a Topic (maybe in the future), so what should you do? One option is Society and Culture, a catchall for a lot of grassroots things that may or may not fit other Topics. Just be aware that there’s not time period, so you’ll find Sports items up to contemporary times among more than 200 posts. Another option is Yishuv (Pre-State), a subtopic of Zionism and Other Jewish History. The advantage of this starting point is the focus on the specific period you want, before statehood; the disadvantage is that you’ll find everything from that period (nearly 200 posts). Yishuv (Pre-State) offers some help by highlighting Key Curated Essentials, with the option to open More Curated Essentials before viewing all posts for that Topic.
Homing in on exactly what you need is where you can have fun tapping into the power of the site.
In our example, you can click on the magnifying glass to the right of FILTERED BY: Society and Culture or FILTERED BY: Yishuv (Pre-State) in maroon just below the blue field stripe near the top of the page. This opens a keyword search within the Topic you have chosen. You can enter Sports or Soccer or Maccabiah or any other term(s) relevant to your research. See our tips on Boolean keyword searches above.
Because you’re doing a research paper, primary sources may be particularly important to you. If so, you’ll want to add a Type filter to your Topic filter. After you have chosen a Topic, you’ll see the “Explore & Learn in three ways” blue boxes on the right side of the page. Scroll past By Topic to By Type, and click on Documents and Sources. You’ll now see that FILTERED BY indicates both the Topic you chose and the Type (Documents and Sources). Note that if your Topic is Yishuv (Pre-State) or any of our other Topics that highlight Curated Essentials, you’ll also have the option to click on a button at the top of the page to View All Documents and Sources for the Topic.
You can filter by Type in addition to by Topic before or after adding a keyword search with the magnifying glass.
Other Types of particular use to your research could be Bibliographies to find books and articles for deeper research on or off line; Contemporary Readings to find recent news articles and analyses on your subject; Historiography to read about how historians have studied your subject; Images to see photos, artwork and graphics about your subject; Issues and Analyses, including Explainer Articles, to gain an overview of your subject and to benefit from the insights of experts on your subject; Maps to visualize the area you are studying; Timelines to put your subject in historical context; Today in Israeli History to highlight specific events; Transcripts to review interviews and conferences that discussed your topic; and Video and Audio, including Explainer Videos and Webinars, to see and hear what experts have to say. If we don’t have posts of a certain Type for your chosen Topic, you won’t see that Type as an option in the menu on the right.
You can wander down one research path, then try another path. You can click on the X next to the name of a Topic or Type filter in maroon to remove it, then choose it’s replacement from the list at the right. Or you can just click on the new Topic or Type, and the site will replace what you previously chose. Similarly, if you have done a keyword search, you can click the X next to the search term to remove it, or you can click on the magnifying glass and enter a new search term.
Visual Projects
See the discussion under Research Projects for help in selecting and researching a subject. Now you’re at the point where you need to produce something visual, whether a poster, a digital collage, a slideshow or a video, rather than a paper.
Before we delve into the resources available, a note about credit. You may use any CIE-created materials that don’t require purchase or access behind a paywall, as long as you clearly label those items “© Center for Israel Education.” If the creator’s name is included, you should include it: “By John Smith, © Center for Israel Education.” Some items you’ll find on our website, especially photographs, are not CIE originals. If the item is not from CIE and is not in the public domain, you will find the required credit information with it and must use that information if you use the item. For example, the photo of actress Gal Gadot used with her entry in our Israel@75 list of 75 current Israelis comes from Israel’s Government Press Office and requires this credit: Amos Ben Gershom, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0.
We are still working on organizing the thousands of images on the website, so for now the Type filter for Images will be most useful for artwork. But if you find a post relevant to your subject, you have permission to download a copy of any photo or image with it, as long as you properly credit it. Also explore the Slide Shows under the Curriculum Type. And you may download and use excerpts of the media under the Video and Audio Type, again with proper credit to CIE.
If your assignment involves showcasing a particular person, be sure to click on Biographies under By Type to find hundreds of possibilities.
If you’re looking for ideas for visual projects, check out the student submissions from our Israel@75 international competition.
Test Prep
Feeling nervous about midterms, finals, Advanced Placement tests or other exams that could include content about Israel, the Middle East, antisemitism, U.S. foreign relations, international diplomacy, Arab nationalism, Jewish peoplehood and a range of other topics? Looking for materials to fill the gaps from books you didn’t finish or lectures you missed? Hoping to reinforce your foundation of knowledge for questions ranging from multiple choice to short answer to FRQ (free-response question) to essays? CIE’s Explore & Learn section is just what you need.
For a broad view of history, hover over Explore & Learn, then click on Timelines under By Type. Under Timelines, click on and scroll through our Master Timeline for the broadest view of history, or pick a more focused timeline, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict or Jerusalem, or open Era I or Era II.
To home in on a specific subject, start with a Topic, and filter and refine your search as explained under Research Projects to find exactly what you need.
Try different Types to fit your preferred way to learn. As mentioned under Research Papers, the options include Video and Audio, Issues and Analyses, Documents and Sources, and Maps.
To understand the leaders and other individuals who might appear on an exam, use Biographies under Type or Leaders and Leadership under Topic.
