DLG Update

December 2010

Tevet 5771

As the Chair  of the Deborah Lerner Gross Jewish Cultural Arts Center, I am writing to the school community to bring you up to date on the progress of the program.  As many of you know, the Center was established at the beginning of the 2002/3 school year at the Melvin J Berman Hebrew Academy in memory of Deborah Lerner Gross, beloved Academy parent, who also served as Trustee of the school and member of its Executive Committee. Debbie’s three children Sarah, Gabriel and Talia have all been students at MJBHA and Gabriel is now in our 11th grade. Next month will mark the 10^th anniversary of Debbie’s passing, and I am pleased to share with you that the Center has far exceeded our initial expectations. 

Since its founding, the Center has contributed in myriad ways to the school and to the wider community.  Working closely with administration and faculty from preschool to twelfth grade, it has managed to enhance the arts component of the curriculum in both Judaic and secular subjects. In particular, the Center has focused on the arts component of the Judaic curriculum, enhancing the teaching of Torah and middot (values) and the love of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael in a range of creative and exciting ways. To me, the impact of the Center is highlighted by the wonderful range of beautiful murals such as the sea mural in the main hallway, the desert mural and rain forest murals in the cafeteria hallway and other, smaller but no less interesting pieces that have been produced collaboratively over the years and appear throughout the school. We are very pleased that the Center’s has supported the production of these murals and love that the students are soproud of their work.

The long term direction of the Center by Rena Fruchter who also serves as head of the Media Center and Library, has allowed the program to grow and develop. Because of the continuity and Rena’s close relationships with teachers and administrators, activities can build on the experience of previous years, ideas can be followed up on, and plans can be made to use available resources to maximum effect. Rena spends much time researching and evaluating guest artists and arranging their visits, so that they can effectively enrich the curriculum and be an integral part of it, choosing those whose performances can transmit to techniques and strategies to teachers that they can then apply to their own teaching. Long term projects over the years include developing art strategies to improve and deepen prayer experience for students so that tefillah is more meaningful for them As one example, recognizing that the shift from everyday routine to prayer is difficult to navigate, special pre-tefillah experiential activities to increase connections to prayer including movement, poetry and collage, were developed for the middle school. In the upper school, students studied one of the Hallelujah Psalms from the morning prayer service and in groups created a 4D sculpture or mobile. Because of Rena’s close knowledge of the curriculum as well as of the richness of the cultural resources in the Washington area, she is able to bring the attention of administrators and teachers to specific concerts, performances and exhibits that would enhance their teaching and bring great benefit to students. Often the Center financially supports the trips and Rena makes herself available for pre-trip and post-trip visits to the classroom for discussions so that the trip is not an isolated occurrence which is quickly forgotten. We have also found that because of the existence of the Center, and its continuity, the school’s development office under Jennifer Zukerman, is able to work with Rena to apply for available state and county grants to help pay for certain projects.

I truly believe the Center has shifted the culture of the school to the belief that the arts are not an interruption of the curriculum but are a vital part of it. This is not a speedy process, but it is becoming a steady movement as teachers who had thought of arts programming as a waste of time now see the benefits of integrating the arts into their curriculum. Rena is regularly brought into discussion with administrators involving key matters of curriculum, teacher orientation and the content of professional days. She is open to using new artistic media such as film and photography, as well drama, painting and poetry and encourages teaching with these media.  She initiates and is part of many interdisciplinary units and has empowered our wonderful staff members to both initiate and carry out projects on their own, knowing that they can always ask help and support when necessary. I have been told by many teachers that Rena gives them the confidence they need to initiate new projects and strategies using the arts in the classroom. Because of Rena’s experience, her advice and input on Arts programming and Arts integration are also sought by area teachers and community organizers.

Rena has devoted considerable time over the last year planning and producing FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) on arts education in Jewish schools based on our experience at MJBHA. In that Rena spends much time answering questions from other Jewish educators about the benefits, practical possibilities and strategies of arts integration, she knew which questions were most relevant to teachers in different schools, and was able to ask MJBHA’s trained faculty the questions and have them respond on camera. A DVD for broad distribution is now in its final stages of editing and will also be posted on various websites.  

It is difficult to provide just a few examples of the wonderful programming of the Center this past year, but I will try:

• Under the guidance of the Center coordinator, the school increased knowledge of different streams of Jewish music, by bringing in a variety of guest artists for all levels of the school.
• In a new direction for the school, the Center successfully planned an exciting song-writing residence for the second grade with eight sessions that culminated in a final performance of songs related to friendship and heroism -the middah (value or admirable character trait) of the month.
• Poetry continued to be a big part of the Center’s activities and a local poet with a strong Jewish background was brought into the school as a Poet-in-residence to run regular poetry workshops. Having a poet-in-residence over an extended period of time with a strong Jewish background made students more comfortable with a medium that had often been seen as alien, and allowed many students to feel confident about expressing themselves in the poems they crafted.
• Yom Hashoah was marked in new and creative ways with the launching of Project Ezekiel in the school integrating arts and history which has allowed students to create visual memorials to many who perished. (more details of this project are available on a dedicated website, www.shoahforensicsartinstitute.com.) Rena, together with school teachers, also developed the “Becoming the Voices” program for Yom Hashoah with the eighth grade, teaching the students how to listen to survivors and how to interview them about their stories.
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• The Center Director continued to work with administrators and teachers to incorporate the arts into science and math teaching - much harder than into language arts and social studies. Among other activities, she brought back for a second year a successful one-man performance that brought to life the character of Albert Einstein, and through songs and stories taught complex scientific concepts in a way that intrigued and excited middle school students.

This academic year already has been brimming with exciting and creative programs and activities.

·        Rena participated in the planning and went with the Upper School on their recent Mission to Israel, which included a visit to the newly reopened Israel Museum, and discussions of the imagery of light and darkness as they relate to Jerusalem and to Chanukah. The post- Mission Art Show included Joseph Cornell memory boxes, photographs, collages, poetry and journals .

·        A year-long visual arts program for the second grade brings students monthly to a temporary Art Gallery set up by Rena including slides of artwork for the students to observe, compare, contrast and analyze, and to discuss themes with Rena. As a related part of this unit, the children do a related hands-on visual project with the lower school art teacher each time.

·        Plans are already in place for an artist in residence will work with 5^th grade classes for a week long residency called History Alive in which students will research, write and perform creative oral histories culminating in a presentation in the form of a living wax museum, of personalities related to the Civil War. 

We have also been able to focus on special projects this year. One example is Martin Luther King Day.  This will be a very special day in the school. In the morning, local arts educator Sean Layne will teach presentation lessons using drama techniques to lower school and middle school classes, focusing on Dr. King’s vision of unity and community. The lessons will be taped to use for future training and to share with other schools. In the afternoon, Layne will present a workshop on “Acting Right- Drama in the Classroom as a Management Strategy’ for lower and middle school teachers of MJBHA as well as other area educators. The goal of the workshop will be to introduce to teachers the language of tableaux – motionless dramatic performances to understand particular moments in time - and the way they can be used in all classrooms.

I am particularly thrilled that this academic year the Center is focusing and encouraging programs and activities throughout the school that explore the richness of the Sephardic/non Ashkenazic experience in different communities throughout Jewish history. Let me highlight just one activity: . For the last few years the Middle School under its programming director has been running an educational form of Color War called Maccabia around Chanukah time. This year the theme of the three day post -Chanukah Maccabia was an exploration of four non-Ashkenazic communities - those of Syrian, Moroccan, Yemenite and Persian Jews. Students  competed by designing a power-point timeline for their community; create an informative “museum” space about relevant life cycle customs and synagogue practices; write songs and perform skits in the community’s style; make a banner; and write a d’var Torah relating to a scholar from that community with a short biography of the person. Foods were presented from each of the communities. I am sure you will agree that this all sounds quite amazing (and delicious!).

I hope I have communicated by this mention of just a few of the activities of the Center some of the excitement and creativity generated by the DLGJCAC in every part of the school, and in the wider community. It has truly been a wonderful addition to the Academy and we can all be very proud of it.. I hope you share my pride and support for the Center and for arts education in the school in general.

 My very best wishes for 2011,

Regards,

Jennifer Breger

Chair, Deborah Lerner Gross Jewish Cultural Arts Center