CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE TEACHING JEWISH HISTORY THROUGH ART EDUCATION A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Art Education by Eileen Zena Salzman May 1987 The Thesis of Eileen Zena Salzman is approved: Dr. Paul W. Kravagna Bl"oenore Sorenson, Advisor California State University, Northridge i i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A special thanks to my advisor, Dr. Lenore Sorenson and my committee members, Professor Ruth Schrier and Dr. Paul Kravagna for their help, encouragement, and guidance throughout this endeavor and for my education at California State University, Northridge: to Dr. Sorenson for her confidence in me, to Mrs. Schrier for being my mentor and to Dr. Kravagna for his perfection. To Linda Thal for her guidance and expertise during the two years of my research and employment at Leo Baeck Temple. To Marsha Josephy for her contributions as a historian of Jewish Art and to Dalia Aronoff for supporting teaching Jewish History through Art Education. To Lynn Hickey, my master teacher and friend, for setting an excellent example of what a teacher should be and for helping me develop good working skills. And most importantly a very special thanks to my family: to my husband Shlomo for his love, support and endurance. To my son Isaac for his independence and success and my daughter Aliza for her moral support and self-reliance. And to my mother, Anna Nathan and to my aunt, Ethel Beiderman for their support throughout my life and through this endeavor. In memory of my father, Alfred Nathan and my uncle, Frank Beiderman. i i i ABOUT JEWS "If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one per cent of the human race.* It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and obtruse learning are also very out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world in all ages: and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself and be excused for it. The Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Persians rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor; then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greeks and the Romans followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality? Mark Twain Harper's September 1899 Note: ~With the holocaust, and the world-wide population explosion, the Jews today would constitute no more than 1/4% of the world population. It is in response to Mark Twains' composition About Jews, September 1899, that I address this thesis. The question and the secret of the Jew in my mind, is the preservation of heritage and traditions passed down from generation to generation. With each generation, it is the duty of the one before to instill the love, beauty and strength of Jewish traditions, religion and heritage. As an educator, I have taken it upon myself to contribute to this immortality. iv ,, . TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii QUOTE iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v ABSTRACT vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 A. Purpose 1 B. Motivation: The Need, Justification 4 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 6 1. JEWISH ART HISTORY 7 Jewish Ceremonial Art 7 The Jewish Home Beautiful 8 Jewish Woman and Her Home 9 The Jewish Book of Why 9 The Second Jewish Book of Why 9 From Land to Land 10 Compass Magazine 10 Jewish Art Treasures from the Prague 11 The Ceremonies of Judaism 11 Jewish Customs and Folklore 11 A History of Jewish Art 12 The Essence of Jewish Art 13 Jewish Art 14 The Jewish Art of the Printed Book 14 Jewish Holidays and Festivals 16 A Feast of History 16 Your Neighbor Celebrates 18 Arts and Crafts the Year Round 19 The Jewish Party Book 20 The Jewish Newspaper 21 v 2. ART EDUCATION 22 The Value of Art 22 Product and Process 23 Discipline Based Education 28 Aesthetic Awareness - Learning How to See 29 Art As Communication 32 Personal Development 33 Creativity 34 The Teachers Role 36 Motivation 40 Evaluating Art 41 Environment 43 Art and Experience 45 Objectives 46 lll. PHILOSOPHY OF ART EDUCATION TO SUPPORT THIS PROJECT 48 1. Objectives in Art Education: A Personel Theory of Art Education 48 IV. PROCEDURES - ACTUAL CURRICULUM AND HISTORY OF RITUAL OBJECTS 57 I. Wimpels 58 II. Synagogue Curtain 62 Ill. Creation 66 IV. Seder Table 70 v. Passover Reclining Pillow 74 VI. Wedding Canopy 77 V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 80 REFERENCES 83 APPENDIX 86 lllustrations-slide reproductions Exhibit Catalogue vi ABSTRACT TEACHING JEWISH HISTORY THROUGH ART EDUCATION by Eileen Zena Salzman Master of Arts in Art Education California State University, Northridge The purpose of this thesis is to develop a curriculum to teach Jewish history, tradition, customs and culture through art education to school aged children. vii TEACHING JEWISH HISTORY THROUGH ART EDUCATION by Eileen Zena Salzman Master of Arts in Art Education California State University, Northridge I. INTRODUCTION A. PURPOSE The purpose of this project was to develop a curriculum to teach Jewish history, tradition, customs and culture through art education to school aged children. The importance of art in our society has been vastly under rated. Elliot Eisner in his article, "Why Art in Education and Why Art Education", presents several major arguments for art education: "the arts represent the highest human achievement" and "that work in the arts develops unique and important mental skills." Eisner places this responsibility at the doorstep of the schools (Getty, p. 64). The lessons presented in this project were influenced by philosophies from two documents Visual and Performing Arts Framework · for California Public Schools: Kindergarten through grade twelve and a report from the Getty Center for Education in the Arts; Beyond Creating: The Place for Art in America's Schools by the J. Paul Getty Trust. Both documents suggest that art be taught as a subject or discipline. Beyond Creating states... "that if art education is to move from the sidelines of instruction to a more central place in a balanced school curriculum, its content needs to be expanded to include attention to the disciplines that contribute to understanding art: art production, art history, art criticism and aesthetics. The inclusion of these four content areas in art instruction is important because each develops knowledge and techniques that contribute significantly not only to 1 2 children's artistic creations, but also to their ability to draw facts and inferences about the cultural and historical contexts for art and to analyze and interpret the powerful ideas that art communicates" (Getty Trust,Leilani Duke, page v). The Visual and Performing Art Framework included content areas similar to those listed in Beyond Creating (Cal State Dept. of Education, pp. 93-94): 1. aesthetic perception 2. creative expression 3. visual arts heritage 4. aesthetic valuing For this project I have adapted two of the concepts from the above documents to develop this beginning curriculum for integrating art and Jewish History. These two concepts are (1) developing historical and cultural content while teaching (2) element and principles of art and design. A sequential curriculum using all of the concepts above is needed to follow this study. The study of the origin and background of when, where, why and how Jewish ritual art objects were created and used is an important aspect of this curriculum. The curriculum, using Jewish ritual objects as a basis for art was initiated to help preserve Jewish heritage in a world that does not have the cloistered environment of the past generations. To use art to create these objects from Jewish History also required the teaching of the elements and principals of art and design. The success of the finished projects and student learning in art necessitated building a good understanding of composition, form, space, color, line, and shape. "Judaism as a way of life comprises practices based on belief and tradition. It needs certain instrumentalities: houses of worship, objects for ritual use... of which have to be designed and shaped. The creation of objects for these purposes entails 3 the application of the arts to Judaism and thus Jewish Art comes into existence.... an art which has a true cultural function in that it gives us objects which play an important role in Jewish life." (Kayser, Stephen S. Defining Jewish Art, "Functions Not Substance, p. 458). B. MOTIVATION; THE NEED, JUSTIFICATION In the conclusion of his article, "Defining Jewish Art", Stephen S. Kayser states ..• "no other faith calls for the use of as many implements as Judaism does. A Jewish home of old reflected the essence of Judaism in every corner, since the implements of Judaism were always present. Today, many of the implements of past generations have lost part of their relevance, since they relate directly to Jewish tradition as it was interpreted in another age.