Since 2016, I have built Jewish Art programs at both the Frankel Jewish Academy and the Rochelle Zell Jewish High School. In both schools, I have taught Jewish Text & Art classes as part of the Jewish Studies curriculum and have led an Art & Tefillah Minyan as part of the schools’ tefillah programs. The goal of these classes is to help students explore their connection to Jewish prayer, Jewish texts and Jewish spirituality through art, while simultaneously developing their skills as budding Jewish artists.
For each project, I teach students a new form of art, guide them through an exploration of a prayer or text, and then set them loose to create original art reacting to the theme that we studied. Below are samples of the work my students have created. Click on the images to enlarge them and scroll through the gallery for each project.
Teshuva (Repentance)
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 2016
When God commanded Noah to build an ark to save him and his family from the Flood, God said:
וְכָפַרְתָּ אֹתָהּ מִבַּיִת וּמִחוּץ בַּכֹּפֶר
“You should cover it inside and out with tar.” (Genesis 6:14) – the tar serving to make the ark waterproof. Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, one of the great Jewish thinkers of the 20th century, noted that the verb for “to cover” – וְכָפַרְתָּ – shares the same Hebrew root as the name Yom Kippur, suggesting that the spiritual work of teshuva – repentance – is not so much ridding ourselves of our sins as painting over them, incorporating them into ourselves and repurposing them for some beautiful and productive purpose.
In this project, students physically enacted this process of teshuva. By collecting detritus from the forest floor that nature had cast off to decay, painting over it and repurposing it into images of renewal, rebirth, return (teshuva), students have modeled with leaves, sticks, bark, canvas and paint the spiritual work going on in our souls during this annual period of teshuva.
Shabbat
Micrography, ink on paper, 2016
Redemption
Paper cutting, 2016
The Shema
Micrography, ink on paper, 2016
Illuminated Texts
Watercolor gouache on paper, 2017-2022
A favorite project of students in Jewish Text & Art has been studying the medieval tradition of illuminating Jewish manuscripts. After studying this art form, students create their own illuminations drawn from Biblical and Rabbinic texts we study on themes such as the limits of truth and when it is okay to challenge God.
Teshuva Cocoons
Mixed media, 2022
During the period from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur, Jews focus on the process of teshuva (repentance). The word teshuva comes from the Hebrew root shuv, meaning “to return.” Through the process of teshuva, we try to return to our core selves, the better versions of ourselves that exist once we heal our relationships and shed the weight of the things we have done wrong.
While the process of teshuva begins during the High Holidays as we reflect on the previous year and commit to doing better going forward, the actual work of transformation that teshuva involves only starts after the holidays as we begin the hard task of growing into better versions of ourselves.
For this project, students explored this process of transformation by seeing themselves as butterflies wrapped in a cocoon and envisioning what kind of person they want to be when they emerge.
Liberation
Steel wire, pantyhose & acrylic on wood base, 2023
The Exodus from Egypt marked the birth of our people as a nation. Students in Jewish Text and Art created wireframe sculptures to explore this critical moment in Jewish history and the process of liberation.
Pandemic Art
2020-2021
During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, while learning remotely over Zoom, students in Jewish Text & Art used art to process their turbulent pandemic experiences. After studying about found object art, students used objects from around their homes to create original art exploring the complex and often painful realities they lived through during the early days of the pandemic.
Pete Stein 