Arts-based Jewish Ed with the Little Avant Gardes

As we explore Arts-based Jewish Education, we invite you to join us in pondering a number of questions:

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1. How can we deepen our students' exposure to the arts and how can we do so in a rich and meaningful way?

2. What is the connection between neuroscience and the arts and how might that influence how we incorporate the arts into our programs or argue for them in our budgets?

3. How does an Arts-based Jewish educational model differ from wonderful but episodic Arts-based experiences?

At The Jewish Education Project, we feel that an Art-based model/approach is important to consider because:

1. It puts the learner at the center and offers a trusting environment for self-expression and the development of critical thinking.

2. It provides learners with the opportunity to explore, personalize and find value in ancient Jewish wisdom and texts.

3. Much of the art that is incorporated is often creative, approachable, and can even be whimsical, providing an entry point into the conversation for all, including the most timid of our learners.

We invite you to enjoy and explore our three videos which we hope will both pique your interest in Arts-Based Jewish educational models and approaches, and also underscore their powerful connection to neuroscience:

• On neuroscience and the arts with the irrepressible Rabbi Geoff Mitelman of Sinai and Synapses
• On the role of a practitioner and the example of Bibliodrama through the creative eyes and guiding hand of inspired Jewish Arts Educator, Elizabeth Yaari
• On a magical program and model called Little Avant Gardes that, while focused on Russian speaking families in this setting, can be adapted in any community. 

Our Arts-based Jewish Education videos are one of several Digital Experiments that we are developed and shared out in 2019 through the generous support of the Jim Joseph Foundation. We hope it was/will be an inviting and refreshing way to explore innovative models of Jewish education in action through new media.

Once you've viewed the videos we invite you to:

• Give us your feedback through our (short) online survey.
• Explore one of our other Digital Experiments, our Graphic Novel on the Chavurah Model of learning.
• I want to talk to someone!! I'm really intrigued by this model and want to find out who I can work with to adapt it for my school (or want to talk more about what models might be right for me).