Fifth Grade Field Trip to the Contemporary Jewish Museum

While our 6th graders and their families were exploring their assigned Torah portions during their final B'nai Mitzvah Prep session yesterday morning, our fifth graders and their families were treated to a very special visit to the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. I accompanied the fifth grade families on a tour of the Arthur Szyk Haggadah exhibit and the art project which followed the tour.

Students and family members gathered outside the main entrance to the CJM, and at 10 a.m. our two docents, Jenni and Cara, came out to greet us. We divided into two groups, and each participant was given a Museum sticker to wear over our name tags. Jenni began the tour with her group first, while the second group, including myself, waited for a few more minutes for any families that might still show up. Once Jenni's group entered the Museum, Cara gathered the remaining families together and began the tour.

She told us about the architect of the building, Daniel Liebeskind, who was told to preserve the historic PG&E building on the site of the Museum. Using the original, rectangular-shaped building, he created the Hebrew word "Chai" by using the original building as the "Chet" shape, and adding a blue cubic-shaped annex, which forms the letter "yud." It's hard to see from the ground, but an aerial view leaves no doubt that the buildings form the word "Chai" - Life!

You can catch a glimpse of the blue cube-shaped annex here.

Once inside the entrance, you feel somewhat disoriented. No wall stands straight; some go out, some go in, and we are thus introduced to the Jewish experience throughout most of our history, never quite knowing where we stood in relation to the societies in which we lived.

As we entered the "cube" upstairs, we moved from a very dark corridor into an incredibly light room.

The ceiling of the cube has 36 diamond-shaped skylights - the number 36 is "double-chai" and also reflects the Jewish tradition that there are 36 righteous people living in every generation - the "Lamed-Vav Tzadeekeem."

In order to introduce us to the background history behind the main focus of our tour - Arthur Szyk's Passover Haggadah illustrations -  Cara had the students form a "living historical time line."

One by one, each student was given a piece of paper with a date to hold, and as Cara described what happened in Jewish history that year, the student performed an action representing the historical event. Later, during the actual tour of the exhibit, this activity proved to have been very effective - the students recalled how the English took over Palestine from the Ottoman Turks after World War I, how Germany began to tighten the noose in Europe between the two wars, and how early Jewish pioneers began to reclaim the Jewish homeland. Cara was able to help us understand the political situation in Europe and Palestine, which Arthur Szyk describes in his illustrations. Here's an example of how we learned the history:

Following the "history lesson," we all moved downstairs again, and briefly visited a pictorial exhibit of the early Kibbutz movement in Palestine. Cara focused on just two photos, asking the students questions about what they saw on the faces of the pioneers, as well as what tools they were holding (scythes and shovels).

Cara helped us understand the hope and determination these early pioneers brought with them, shirking off the "shackles" of their European lives and looking forward to the future that they would build themselves. These are themes running through Arthur Szyk's work.

Then it was time to enter the exhibit hall for the main focus of our tour. No photos are allowed in the exhibit, since the flash of cameras can hurt the water color and guache illustrations. This enlarged photo of the "Mah Nishtana" page of the Haggadah is in the corridor leading to the exhibit hall.

Arthur Szyk's work is laden with symbolism, which is why the historical background information was necessary, in order to fully appreciate his work. He was a social activist, who used his art to try to effect social justice - tikkun olam. Most of his work reflects his fascination with the illuminations created by medieval and Renaissance artists to illustrate the Bible. His Haggadah illuminations describe in vivid images the desperation and "slavery" of the Jews in Europe during the 1930's (when he created the Haggadah), contrasted with the hope and determination of the Jewish pioneers he had seen when he visited Palestine in 1914.

Following the tour of the Szyk exhibit, both groups met in the CJM's art room, which had been set up with tables for our art project. Jenni introduced us to the project - each participant would create his/her own illumination on a vellum sheet, to share what s/he considered to be a problem in our world today.

Danielle used her illumination to cry out against the imbalance of poverty vs. plenty in our world...

...while Jacob shared the natural catastrophe of drought...

...and Jennifer's message is to stop world hunger, war, and stereotyping

Shortly before noon, most of the families had completed their projects. This was a very successful trip in that we learned so much in such a short amount of time, we had a wonderful community experience outside of our Isaiah campus, and for many of the participating families, this was their first visit to the CJM. Since each Bar and Bat Mitzvah of Temple Isaiah will be receiving a free membership to the CJM as a gift from the Museum, I'm hoping that this visit will inspire them and their families to visit the Museum often.