Sensing color and landscape in  the desert

The Ann Belsky Moranis School of Arts is devoted to exploring the synthesis between creativity and spirituality, encouraging OTS students to use art as a tool for personal fulfillment, religious expression and social comment.

As 11th and 12th grade students at the Shavei Rachel High School for Girls completed their end-of-year projects in theater and the arts, a steering committee was hard at work planning major enhancements to the school’s already advanced arts curriculum for the coming academic year.

Final projects included two theatrical performances – “Black and White,” which examined class differences in society, and “Rescue Train,” about the search for identity by a child of Holocaust survivors. Produced and directed entirely by students, who also created the sets and costumes, these performances drew large audiences from the Gush Etzion area. Theater students also wrote and performed personal monologues on a wide range of subjects and emotions.

In the art track, students used the medium of their choice to create an exhibit that included works on such topics as honoring parents, testing boundaries, confronting death, societal pressures, and self-esteem.

The new curriculum will feature a series of monthly units aimed at integrating art into other studies – such as creating art out of recycled materials during a unit on environmental studies, or a psychological exploration of the influence of dress in theatrical productions. For the first time, theater students will write and stage their own original compositions. The curriculum will also emphasize the exploration of Jewish topics through cinema and the media.

Artistic Freedom for Religious Students

"Rescue Train," (left to right)  Leyli Karpel, Chagit Freiman

With the goal of encouraging the expression of spirituality through art, the Israeli Ministry of Education naturally selected OTS’s Ann Belsky Moranis School of Arts to pilot an experimental arts curriculum for religious high schools over the past school year. The program, developed by the Beit Av Institute for Creativity and Renewal in Torah, took place at the Neveh Channah High School for Girls and encompassed the study of Jewish texts, exercises to explore the students’ personal artistic style – such as a two-day hike in the Judean desert dedicated to sensing colors and landscapes – and workshops on expression through art.

Rabbi Dov Berkowitz, director of Beit Av, and artist Asher Dahan, worked in close partnership with the Neveh Channah art staff to carry out the program. “The active and professional involvement of the Neveh Channah teachers was critical to the program’s success,” Berkowitz stresses.

(left to right) Shirli Mazuz, Elisheva  Ben Attar, Shiri Cohen, Maya Sack and Joannie Davidovich in "Black and White".

Most participants in the program chose to express their commitment to faith through their art projects. One student broke a mirror into small pieces and then painstakingly glued the fragments into a small ball to illustrate the philosophical concept that it is impossible to create something complete. Another student painted an abstract picture of her emotions and overlaid it with calligraphy of the “Barchi Nafshi” prayer, inviting viewers to see her painting through the written message.

Following the success of the program, Beit Av and the Ministry of Education are preparing a booklet of text and photos that will document the pilot project.

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