The year of the creative in Jewish education

This week, countless young children in Jewish schools of all varieties will bring home familiar handmade crafts for the Jewish New Year: paper towel tube shofarot, “stained glass” honey dishes made of plastic bowls and colored with markers, and decorated “Shanah Tovah” cards. Many busy parents will not lift their gaze to look at these crafts as they respond on autopilot, “Oh, that’s beautiful,” as they do to most art projects their children make in school.

We need a whole new way of thinking about creative learning in Jewish education. These crafts are intended to engage young learners in holiday themes, in making their own symbols that they will hold dear. But without creative engagement with ideas, not just materials, they may be making their own shofar or honey dish, but without achieving deep understanding or a new perspective or interpretation of their own.

Focusing on creativity is a disruptive and uncomfortable notion for many schools. In his groundbreaking new book about the need for school change, “Creative Schools,” Ken Robinson dispels the myth that creativity is simply “about having off-the-wall ideas and letting your imagination run free.” Creativity, Robinson argues, also involves developing a critical, discerning mind and requires drafting, crafting and refining. Creativity is defined as the process of having original ideas that have value. Creativity is not a euphemism for frivolity or meaningless play. Creativity happens through intentional play and the application of imagination. It is a natural part of learning and living.

Another myth about creativity is that it can’t be taught. In my experience, that is only true if the school refuses to teach it.

The question is: Who is prepared to teach creativity? 

Dream Lab is a creativity think tank and pedagogy test kitchen at the Graduate Center for Jewish Education of American Jewish University, which is poised to answer this question. Los Angeles has an untapped mine of natural resources to attend to the task of teaching through creativity: one of the most creative Jewish populations concentrated in one city. There are Jewish creatives and artists who specialize in music, visual art, theater, digital media, cooking, movement and more who are currently freelancing in teaching roles as occasional workshop providers. They have much to offer, and we should take their potential contribution as a serious opportunity to revitalize Jewish life against the landscape of a particularly creative moment in secular culture.

Dream Lab’s theory of change is that if artists and creatives play a more central role in facilitating authentic learning — and by authentic learning I mean accessing, interpreting, applying and making meaning of ideas and concepts — then perhaps Jewish education could achieve radically different outcomes. Learners will turn to Jewish tools for confronting questions and problem solving. By widening the possibilities of Jewish expression beyond basic writing and discussion modes, Jewish learning will become Jewish thriving.  

This fall, seven creatives will begin a yearlong Dream Lab fellowship at American Jewish University to explore how to redefine the form and function of a Jewish educator as a facilitator of creativity, interpretation and personal Jewish expression. They will meet monthly to delve into Jewish ideas and texts about life’s ultimate questions, study pedagogy and human development, and incubate new creative methodologies of facilitating learning through creative processes.

As a result of the fellowship, the creatives will acquire the teaching and planning skills to implement high-quality creative Jewish learning experiences that are more Judaically rich and designed with a deeper understanding of and attention to the needs of learners. They will be co-planning new lessons, courses and curricula to bring to supplementary schools, day schools, youth groups and camps. Within a year, they will be sowing the seeds for a field of creative Jewish education, disseminating their teaching tools, and recruiting and mentoring additional artists who may be curious about Jewish teaching and learning.

Although some traditionalists might worry that introducing creative process into Jewish learning might disrupt the delicate continuity of cultural inheritance from one generation to the next, our history suggests the opposite can be true. As the pre-eminent expert on the American-Jewish experience, Jonathan Sarna, has argued, “Continuity may depend on discontinuity.” The greatest gift Jewish education can give our children is not simply a pre-packaged tradition, but a variety of tools to engage in creative dialogue with the tradition so that they may revitalize Jewish culture, practice and community throughout their lives.

By next Rosh Hashanah, the Dream Lab faculty and fellows hope to provoke a process of real creative interpretation and production among young Jews and partner with educators to rethink how to integrate arts into their curriculum. Often on the margins of Jewish life, Jewish artists are stepping into the core to redefine teaching and learning. Let this be the year of the creative in Jewish life. 

Miriam Heller Stern is dean of the Graduate Center for Jewish Education at American Jewish University.