DOCSLIB.ORG

On the Eighth Day: Ethics and the Face in Samuel Bak's Adam And

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
On the Eighth Day: Ethics and the Face in Samuel Bak's Adam And Chazen 1 On the Eighth Day: Ethics and the Face in Samuel Bak’s Adam and Eve Collection Emily Chazen Senior Thesis Advisor: Molly Farneth Religion Department Haverford College April 20, 2018 Chazen 2 Table of Contents Abstract 3 Acknowledgments 4 R’fuah Sh’leimah: Bearing Witness to the Unbearable 5 Here there is a why: Post-Holocaust Traumatic Reconciliation in Samuel Bak’s Artwork 12 Nothing Can Be Changed Unless It is Faced: The Ethics of Representation 30 (Re)visioning the Past: Transforming the Landscape of Memory 53 Works Cited 56 Works Consulted 61 Chazen 3 Abstract Holocaust survivor Samuel Bak has dedicated his life to exploring the intersections of trauma and the human condition through his artwork. Though most scholarship on his paintings has been focused on its implications for Holocaust studies, I look to re-position Bak’s works in the context of ethics, gender theory, and disability studies. Focusing specifically on his 2008 to 2011 Adam and Eve collection, I examine the face as a site of ethical exploration to suggest that Bak reimagines the landscape of memory to illustrate how truly remembering the Holocaust entails both recounting the narratives of the past and ensuring that future generations do not endure trauma. In the first section of this thesis, I suggest that Bak’s use of the face leads to the production of communities of healing between victims, survivors, and viewers alike. In the next section, I illustrate how Bak invites the viewer to problematize her relationship to social norms in order to confound systems of gendered and ability-centric oppression. In the conclusion, I demonstrate how Bak’s paintings refuse to situate themselves within a confined set of ethical dilemmas, revising narratives of Holocaust memory such that they come to empower people to challenge the trauma that becomes perpetuated in their own society. Chazen 4 Acknowledgments Just over two years ago, I sat in Naomi Koltun-Fromm’s office, leafing through the thin pages of the Harper Collins Bible, anxiously chattering about the paper I had just written on Genesis 2-3. It was in the conversation that ensued that my eyes were opened (pun intended) to the potential for liberation within the text; it was there that the start of my passion for Genesis 2-3 was born and that the trajectory of my relationship to Religious Studies was shaped. Without Naomi’s encouragement, I would not have become a minor and then a major in Religion. I am indebted to the support and kindness she has continually extended to me over the years: were it not for her, my time at Haverford would not have been the same. There are others to whom I owe my deepest gratitude. In the all-too-brief time that I have had the privilege of studying Religion, the members of the faculty have shaped my relationship to and changed my outlook on the world. Brett Krutzsch’s encouragement to investigate Queer Studies inspired much of the latter half of this thesis, and I am truly grateful for what he offered. Pika Ghosh’s dedication to helping me find external artwork broadened the scope of my understanding, and I have been so lucky to work with her throughout this year. Terrance Wiley, our fearless leader in Religion 298, expanded my intellectual horizons and allowed me to muse more expansively on the boundaries (or lack thereof) of Religious Studies. His probing helped push me analyze more critically the central claims of this thesis and influenced how I understand religious scholarship overall. And Ken Koltun-Fromm has altered my relationship to religious thought and practice. Through his wit and humor, Ken has shown me how to really think through ethical quandaries I encounter in the world around me. I am so grateful that he took the time to read an early iteration of this thesis, and more importantly, that he took the time to care about me as a student. My thesis advisor, Molly Farneth has been instrumental in my personal growth and development throughout my time at Haverford. I was blessed to have stumbled upon Gender and Power in Modern Jewish & Christian Thought in the course catalogue prior to my junior year, and since then, Molly has offered some of the most insightful reflections on my writing, thinking, and reading I have ever received. This thesis would be nothing were it not for her continual investment in my work. As I have told people time and time again, she is Haverfordian in every sense of the word, and I am better for having been her student. It would be remiss not to acknowledge the amazing cohort of Religion seniors: Alliyah Allen, Aya Wertheimer, Cristian Espinoza, Fatou Sylla, James Levy, Justin Brendel, Marilee Oldstone-Moore, Miles Lee, and Shirah Kraus. It has been one of the biggest privileges I have had to learn with and from you all. To my best friends—Caroline Steliotes, Ben Yellin, and Kelly Waychoff—who have listened to me prattle about my theses nonstop since the start of the year: I cannot begin to express how grateful I am that you (at least pretended to) care about my intellectual passions. There is no one in the world who I would’ve rather had dinner at 6 with every night. And to the friends who have laughed and lamented with me since our first days of college—Annika Ulrich, Jia-Ling Tuan, Greta Koch, and so many others—I have been so blessed by your friendship. Haverford would not have been the same without you. My family has offered their undying support, and I would not be where I am without them. My grandfather, Shikie, a Holocaust survivor himself, has shown me the true meaning of forgiveness and kindness: he continues to bring light to a world obscured by darkness. So too have my grandmothers, Judy and Mary, and my grandfather, Marty, taught me the value of generosity, diligence, and, above all else, love. It is because of them that I strive to do and be better. My parents, Ally and Jeff, and my brother, Max, have encouraged me to embrace who I am in ways that have allowed me to grow exponentially over the years. Were it not for their continued love and care, I would not be half the person I am today. Most importantly, I owe everything to the eleven million people who perished in the Holocaust, who I have lived with but never met, loved but never known. This thesis is theirs. Chazen 5 R’fuah Sh’leimah1: Bearing Witness to the Unbearable Let it be known: I did not fall from grace. I leapt to freedom. ANSEL ELKINS, “THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF EVE.” In the beginning, there was a narrative. A tale of origins, of humanity, of loss and life, Genesis 2-3 tells the story of Adam and Eve, the two beings that the Hebrew Bible2 suggests were the first among the “generations of the and subsequently (האדם) heavens and the earth.”3 According to the story, God formed ha’adam created the Garden of Eden, the space that the being would inhabit, “till[ing] it and keep[ing] it.”4 To sustain ha’adam, God created bountiful, beautiful trees filled with luscious fruit, intended for eating, and in the center of Eden, God placed two trees: the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life. Though God invited ha’adam to eat freely of almost all of the trees in Eden, God warned that ha’adam must not eat of either of the two specially-designated trees. If ha’adam were to do so, God explained, the human would face imminent death. As time passed for ha’adam, God came to realize that isolating the human in Eden would not suffice. Rather, the being needed a companion, a helper and partner with whom Eden could be enjoyed. In a first attempt at providing ha’adam companionship, God offered the human the opportunity to interact with and name every living creature; however, even as ha’adam named them, no partnership seemed apt. In response, God put ha’adam in a deep, tranquilizing sleep and 1 Borrowed from “Mi Shebeirach,” the Jewish prayer for healing, this phrase traditionally translates to a “complete healing.” 2 The Christian Bible and the Qur’an also view Adam and Eve as the original beings, though the Qur’an associates their origins with a different narrative than that presented in Jewish and Christian traditions. 3 Gen 2:4. 4 Gen 2:15. Chazen 6 :Upon awakening, the man proclaimed 5.(מצלעתיו אחת ויקח) ultimately cleaved the being in two for out ,(אשה) This at last is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman“ this one was taken.”6 At the time of their creation, both woman and man were naked (אש) of Man but not ashamed. One day, the serpent, an animal deemed “more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made,”7 asked the woman whether God had said not to eat from any of the trees in the Garden of Eden. Of course, the woman knew that she was allowed to eat of almost all the trees except those in the middle of Eden. She explained this to the serpent, adding that she would die if she even touched8 either of the trees in the center of the garden. However, the serpent explained that neither the man nor the woman (“you”) would die if they were to eat of the Tree; instead, the serpent suggested, they would gain access to knowledge that would put them on a similar plane as God, knowing “good and evil.”9 Weighing the choice that lay before her, the woman decided to eat the fruit of the Tree, and she subsequently gave some of the fruit to the man, who ate it as 5 Though the traditional account of the Genesis 2-3 story suggests that Eve was taken from the “rib” of Adam, feminist theologians have long argued that the Hebrew term actually points toward the notion that Eve emerged from the “side” of Adam.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Opening of the Samuel Bak Museum
    VILNA GAON STATE JEWISH MUSEUM 2017 / 2 5778 / 1 Dear friends of the Museum, Having bid farewell to the old year, we kindly invite you to recall the most important and interesting moments in the Museum’s life in the period from July to December 2017. We thank you for your friendship and hope that you will stay with us in the New Year 2018! All the best, Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum team OPENING OF THE SAMUEL BAK MUSEUM On 16 November 2017, the official grand opening of a new branch of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum – the Samuel Bak Museum – took place. The new museum exhibits 37 paintings by the world- famous artist Samuel Bak, which the artist donated to Lithuania. Samuel Bak was born in 1933 in Vilnius. At the age of just nine years he held his first exhibition of drawings. Samuel Bak miraculously survived the Nazi occupation and ended up at a displaced persons camp in Germany. Later the artist lived in Israel and Western Europe. In 1993 Samuel Bak settled down in the United States of America where he continues with his creative endeavours. The artist creates in an authentic style of allegoric realism and raises ever topical issues of the world’s fragile nature, search for human identity and ability to recover from a catastrophe. The opening ceremony of the Samuel Bak Museum was attended by over a hundred high-ranking state officials and public figures, foreign diplomats and guests, including the artist himself with his family. Director of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum Markas Zingeris, head of the Samuel Bak Museum Ieva Šadzevičienė, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania Liana Ruokytė-Jonsson, Mayor of Vilnius Remigijus Šimašius, Member of Parliament Emanuelis Zingeris, and Ambassador of the United States of America Anne Hall addressed the audience.
    [Show full text]
  • Van Der Linden, R: Women After War: Jewish
    Women After War: Jewish Women as Displaced Persons in Belsen, 1945-50 By Riley van der Linden V00820139 Supervised by Dr. Kristin Semmens A Graduating Essay Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements, in the Honours Programme For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in the Department of History University of Victoria 26 March 2018 Table of Contents Introduction 2 Chapter One: Displaced Persons Camps in Political and Cultural Context 5 Chapter Two: Jewish Displaced Persons at Belsen DP Camp 12 Chapter Three: The Multi-Faceted Role of Female Jewish DPs in Belsen 25 Conclusion 40 Bibliography 42 !1 Introduction The Third Reich and the Holocaust have been the subject of intense academic study since the end of the Second World War. How the Holocaust developed from prejudiced attitudes to the Final Solution, what occurred within the Nazi concentration (KZ) and death camps, and how the camps eventually came to be liberated have all been studied in great detail. However, the issue of displaced persons (DPs) in Europe in the immediate postwar period is often glossed over, or not discussed at all, in other studies and bodies of work written in English. In more general histories of Europe at this time, most texts will discuss World War II and the Holocaust up until liberation, and immediately begin discussing the post-war fallout in divided Germany in political and economic terms; rarely are the millions of DPs mentioned at all, and if they are, they are talked about in very broad terms. As well, in the few texts in English that do discuss the DP crisis in Europe, rarely is gender used as a category of analysis, nor are individual camps discussed in any great detail.
    [Show full text]
  • Lithuania and the Jews the Holocaust Chapter
    UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM CENTER FOR ADVANCED HOLOCAUST STUDIES Lithuania and the Jews The Holocaust Chapter Symposium Presentations W A S H I N G T O N , D. C. Lithuania and the Jews The Holocaust Chapter Symposium Presentations CENTER FOR ADVANCED HOLOCAUST STUDIES UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM 2004 The assertions, opinions, and conclusions in this occasional paper are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council or of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. First printing, July 2005 Copyright © 2005 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Contents Foreword.......................................................................................................................................... i Paul A. Shapiro and Carl J. Rheins Lithuanian Collaboration in the “Final Solution”: Motivations and Case Studies........................1 Michael MacQueen Key Aspects of German Anti-Jewish Policy...................................................................................17 Jürgen Matthäus Jewish Cultural Life in the Vilna Ghetto .......................................................................................33 David G. Roskies Appendix: Biographies of Contributors.........................................................................................45 Foreword Centuries of intellectual, religious, and cultural achievements distinguished Lithuania as a uniquely important center of traditional Jewish arts and learning. The Jewish community
    [Show full text]
  • Chance in the Art of Samuel Bak Pucker Gallery | Boston
    1 IN THE ART OF CHANCE SAMUEL BAK PUCKER GALLERY | BOSTON 2 Incrementally, 2017 Oil on canvas 24 x 36” BK2051 3 In View of Events to Come, 2017 Oil on canvas 16 x 20” BK2037 IN THE ART OF CHANCE SAMUEL BAK ALBERT EINSTEIN FAMOUSLY SAID THAT GOD DOES NOT PLAY DICE WITH THE universe. Stephen Hawking replied that not only does God play dice, He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can’t be seen. Throughout nearly seven decades of artistic production, Samuel Bak has often used dice, within the confines of paper and canvas, as supporting characters. But in this series, they take center stage. He plays with them, deconstructs them, and makes the viewer search for them. He prompts us to ask if there’s more to the laws of the universe than the laws of chance. Dice are hardly new to human civilization. In Hindu mythology, the god Shiva plays dice with his consort, Parvati, and loses. Dice dating back nearly 5,000 years have been excavated in Iran and around the same period Egyptians played a dice game called Senet. The Romans were inveterate gamblers — in all four Gospels Roman soldiers cast lots for Jesus’s clothing at the foot of the cross. Dice were thrown in ancient China and Japan. Our English words — die for one cube, dice for two or more — come from the Latin datum, which means “something given.” In these paintings, Bak considers just what humanity has been given. 4 Humanity doesn’t get to look on from a safe distance.
    [Show full text]
  • THE ART of the QUESTION: Paintings by SAMUEL BAK PARDES II, 1994 Oil on Linen 51 X 77” BK311
    THE ART OF THE QUESTION: Paintings by SAMUEL BAK PARDES II, 1994 Oil on Linen 51 X 77” BK311 Front Cover Image: TIMEPIECE, 1999 Oil on Canvas 32 X 40" BK735 CREDITS: Design: Leslie Anne Feagley • Editors: Destiny M. Barletta and Justine H. Choi • Photography: Samuel Bak and Keith McWilliams © 2009, Pucker Art Publications Printed in China by Cross Blue Overseas Printing Company THE ART of the QUESTION Paintings by SAMUEL BAK ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ith the generous support of Pucker Gallery, AT DREW UNIVERSITY: Gabriele Hitl-Cohen, Director of the three institutions—Wabash College, Drew Korn Gallery; Sara Lynn Henry, Professor of Art History, University, and DePauw University—are col- Emerita and former Chair of the Art Department; Maxine laborating to bring to our campuses Samuel Beach and Anne Yardley, Deans of the Drew Theological Bak’s artwork. For both liberal arts and theological teaching School; Ann Saltzman, Director of the Center for Holocaust and learning, the art of Samuel Bak offers a unique oppor- and Genocide Studies; J. Terry Todd, Director of the Center tunity to engage students, faculty, staff, and our institutions’ for Religion, Culture, and Confl ict; Jonathan Golden, Direc- many publics with the questions rooted in our most basic tor of Hillel; Heather Murray Elkins, Chair of Religion and understandings of what it means to be Jew and Christian, the Arts at Drew; Andrew Scrimgeour, Director, and Ernest liberally educated citizens, and human beings. Just as Bak’s Rubinstein, Theological Librarian, of the Drew University work unites traditions and themes of artistic production Library; and James Hala, NEH Distinguished Professor of from Michelangelo to Mantegna, so too his paintings invite the Humanities.
    [Show full text]
  • SAMUEL BAK - Born in 1933 in Lithuania to a Jewish Family)
    SAMUEL BAK - born in 1933 in Lithuania to a Jewish family) - by the end of World War II, Samuel and his mother were the only members of his extensive family to survive the Holocaust. - 1948 he and his mother emigrated to Israel. - Since 1993 he lives in Boston, MA and his work is on display at the Pucker Gallery and at the Facing History Main Offices. Tuesday, October 11, 2011 Samuel Bakʼs Paintings Name:_______________________________Period:_____ Samuel Bak ! -born in_________ in _____________________ to a _____________________________. ! - by the end of World War II,___________________________________________________________________. ! - 1948 he and his mother emigrated to _________________________. ! - Since 1993 he lives in Boston, MA and his work is on display at the Pucker Gallery and the FHAO main offices. Elegy ! -_________________________________________________________________________________________. Discuss how W. H. Auden poem is an example of an elegy:__________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Paintings Example- Elegy, 1997 Examples of Symbolism Interpretation / Meaning of Painting Overall Impression of the Painting 1- 2- 3- 1- Elegy III, 1997 Examples of Symbolism Interpretation / Meaning of Painting Overall Impression of the Painting 1- 2- 3- 2- Flight From Berlin, 1990-91 Examples of Symbolism Interpretation / Meaning of Painting Overall Impression of the Painting 1- 2- 3- 3- Keeper of Secrets, 1994 Examples of Symbolism
    [Show full text]
  • Witness: the Art of Samuel Bak, Resources for Teachers
    University of Nebraska at Omaha DigitalCommons@UNO Teacher Education Faculty Publications Department of Teacher Education 2019 Witness: The Art of Samuel Bak, Resources for Teachers Connie Schaffer Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/tedfacpub Part of the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Creation of Wartime III, 1999-2008 Oil on canvas, 50 x 75” Resources for Teachers Extend the experience: Teachers, we are pleased to provide educational resources to accompany Witness: The Art of Samuel Bak. These resources will allow you to extend the discussion of Samuel Bak’s art beyond the exhibit tour. The materials are designed to be used with students who attended the exhibit and can also be used to introduce Samuel Bak’s art to students who could not visit the gallery and with your future classes. Try something new: As a teacher, we recognize you may be primarily drawn to the exhibit, a certain painting, or a symbol by your area of expertise. However, understanding how other disciplines approach Bak’s art can draw you and your students more deeply into the paintings and may prove to be quite enlightening. The strategies listed here can be implemented in varied content areas, and we hope you consider trying a strategy not commonly used within your discipline. Instructional Strategies The following instructional strategies reference exhibit catalogue page numbers, specific paintings, and content. Paintings are also referenced by title if you prefer to access online exhibit images (http://bit.ly/UNOTEDBak). Reading Visual Text: (individual and small group analysis, small and whole group discussion) Background information Samuel Bak’s paintings tell a story and provide witness to the trauma he experienced as a child.
    [Show full text]
  • Still, Life.5
    Samuel BAK PUCKER GALLERY . BOSTON . 2006 Still, life... Recent Paintings by Samuel Bak By Saul Touster & Irene Tayler n the history of Western art there are a number of artists, especially since the Renaissance, who have come to be identified Iby their still life paintings: Chardin, Cezanne, Morandi. Although a late-comer as a genre, the modern still life has effected major changes in technique and style in art and shifts in cultural consciousness. For example, cubism evolved mainly through still life painting, from Cezanne’s radical vision to Picasso’s and Braque’s experiments, and moved from being avant garde to become a popular visual sensibility. It is too early to say whether Sam Bak’s work in still life is to stand among the works of those artists. But it is time enough to see that in his still lifes – which are a major part of his oeuvre – he is working significant changes and challenges in the moral environment of Western art. Bak works under the influence of the great tradition in Western art, as has been widely recognized in his painterly style and his appropri- ation of images from great artists of the past. His Genesis paintings were centered on Michelangelo’s imagery in both God’s creation of man – His extended arm and finger – and the Fall as He drove Adam and Eve from the Garden. Likewise, the Dürer figure of Melancholia moves through his paintings as the somber, contempla- tive angel puzzled over the troubled and troubling world viewing its scenes of ruin. Moreover, despite the unique vision of his work, Bak’s still lifes reflect in both theme and technique the influence of two great periods in the history of the genre: 17th century Dutch still lifes, especially the vanitas paintings, and early 20th century Italian artists of the so-called Metaphysicals, Morandi and de Chirico.
    [Show full text]
  • Is There a Life Lesson in the Dedication of the Bak Museum?
    Is there a life lesson in the dedication of the Bak Museum in Vilna on 16 November 2017? Matters of return and remembering, openness and generosity, repressing and dreaming all filled our days in Vilna as we accompanied Sam Bak for the realization of a promise. Some seven years ago, as Samuel Bak was sharing his childhood of potential and despair with his grandson, he was called to meet the Prime Minister of Lithuania. In this moment, Bak decided that if there were to be a museum dedicated to his art, it should be in his birthplace. He committed to donate a substantial and comprehensive collection of his art to this endeavor, but many disparate pieces of the puzzle needed to be considered: • The Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum • The extensive and impressive body of Bak's art spanning six decades • The profound friendship between Rimantas Stankevicius and Bak • The leadership of the brothers Zingeris: Emanuelis and Markas • The availability and full commitment of the Pucker Gallery and its staff As in all of life, timing and luck, vision and hard and creative work must coalesce; then health and good will can move an idea to realization. For more than six years, staff and professionals in Boston and in Vilna worked to establish a unique space and opportunity—a place and chance to remember the fractured past via the challenging visual language that Bak has created, to project an unending and unanswered series of human questions. Humankind's extraordinary capacity for evil and for good is at the center of all of Bak's art.
    [Show full text]
  • Top Stories 5779 / 1
    VILNA GAON STATE JEWISH MUSEUM 2018 / 2 TOP STORIES 5779 / 1 Dear friends of the Museum, As we welcome the New Year 2019, please find a more exhaustive review of the most memorable moments from the recent six months of the Museum’s activities, learn about the Museum’s exciting statistics and meet our museology specialist Saulė Valiūnaitė, curator of the exposition of the Museum of Culture and Identity of Lithuanian Jews, an upcoming branch of the VGSJM. Yours, Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum team Review of Museum Events SEMINAR FOR TEACHERS FROM THE BALTIC COUNTRIES On 11–13 July, Yad Vashem (Israel) and Memorial de la Shoah (France) held a seminar on the Holocaust for teachers from Latvia and Lithuania which took place at the Tolerance Centre. The participants of the three-day seminar learned about the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania and other Baltic countries and discussed challenges and opportunities related to the Holocaust education. PREMIER OF THE FILM ‘THE GOOD NAZI’ AND MEETING WITH THE FILM MAKERS On 12 July, premier of the film ‘The Good Nazi’ (directed by Yaron Niski, 2018) and a meeting with the film makers were held at the Museum’s Tolerance Centre as organised in cooperation with the Embassy of the United States of America in Vilnius. The film ‘The Good Nazi’ is a tribute to the amazing historical figure Major Karl Plagge, who headed the forced labour camp HKP 562. The camp operated on Subačiaus Street in Vilnius between 1943 and 1944. Its inmates repaired military vehicles. Thanks to Karl Plagge several hundred Jews condemned to death survived the Holocaust.
    [Show full text]
  • The Art of Samuel
    I LLUMINATIONS The Art of Samuel Bak Collection at Facing History and Ourselves n 1977, the parents of a student in my first Facing History and Ourselves class took me to an exhibition of Samuel Bak’s work. I Icouldn’t wait to share the catalogue with my class. As I turned the pages, students literally moved their chairs closer to the images. They were disturbed, curious, questioning. “Is this work art?” They saw pears in harnesses of metal in “foreign” landscapes; pears against buildings with smoke stacks, tables and chess figures, keyholes and keys; villages set in between halved pears that looked like mountains, candles, trees, and birds. The images drew students from the comfort of their concrete thinking to a new fascination, a dis-ease for some, inspired by Bak’s work. They had moved from concrete to abstract thinking right before my eyes. “How can this be art?”, they asked as if they had discovered Salvador Dalí and surrealism next to the still-lifes they were instructed to draw in their art class. “You can’t get an A in art class for pears like that!” Immediately, we invited their art teacher to join our class that day and from then on included her in our journey. Nothing was the same after that! To this day, Samuel Bak’s paintings remain an integral part of similar journeys taken by Facing History and Ourselves teachers and students. We thank Bernie and Sue Pucker and Samuel and Josée Bak for the collection of 20 paintings that we are so proud to exhibit at our Brookline headquarters.
    [Show full text]
  • Holocaust and Human Behavior Six-Week Unit Outline for Educators in Jewish Sttings
    Holocaust and Human Behavior Six-Week Unit Outline for Educators in Jewish Settings Introduction This outline guides you through a unit using readings, videos, and other resources from Holocaust and Human Behavior. The unit is organized to follow the Facing History Scope and Sequence, and it is designed to be taught in a Jewish setting. As you prepare for and teach this unit, it is important to refer to the book Holocaust and Human Behavior for context necessary to help guide students from lesson to lesson and to answer their questions. We also recommend that you read the Get Started section in the book as you prepare to teach this unit for important suggestions about how to foster a reflective classroom commu- nity and how to support students as they encounter the emotionally challenging history of the Holocaust. Each row in the charts below corresponds roughly to one day of instruction time. Since schedules, class period length, and the needs of individual classes and students vary, teachers will likely need to make adjustments to this plan to best suit their needs and circumstances. The teaching notes accompanying each lesson often provide suggestions for making adjustments to the lesson in order to abbreviate it or go deeper. www.facinghistory.org/outline/hhb-six-week Section A: Individual and Society [~3 days] In this first series of lessons, students begin the unit by examining the societal factors that shape how we think about our own identities and how we define others. After a broad introduction to the concept of identity, these lessons look closely at how one factor, religion, influences the way many people see themselves and others, and the lessons go on to explore the way that stereo- types can distort our perceptions of others.
    [Show full text]