The Jewish Lens Curriculum, Picturing Israel: History Heritage and Homeland: Challenging Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism Through Photography, was created in response to the colossal tragedy of October 7, 2023. This gave birth to the incredible rise of antisemitic and anti-Zionist acts, which are often born of historical ignorance and fed by negative stereotypes and assumptions. We must give our youththe tools and knowledge they need to proudly defend their Jewish and Israeli history and heritage, while challenging the false assumptions and generalizations that others make about Jews today.
The curriculum uses the art of photography to help young people acquire knowledge of the critical moments of Jewish history. It’s specially designed for use with middle- and high-school students, in day schools, congregational schools, and informal education in community settings.
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Goals
Through their participation in The Jewish Lens curriculum, students:
• Learn of the historical moments that are central to the land of Israel, Jewish heritage,and the diversity of Jewish communities around the world.
• Analyze Jewish texts and make connections with contemporary Jewish life.
• Cultivate their visual literacy skills, and the art of photography.
The curriculum uses the work of renowned photographer Zion Ozeri as a stimulus to investigate Jewish history, values, community, and other topics. Ozeri’s photographs capture the unity and diversity of the world Jewish community—reflecting the values and traditions that have defined Jewish existence across the globe for centuries. His work is a natural springboard for student explorations into these important topics.
Students come to see photographs as rich documents of Jewish life and learn to make connections among these images, written texts, and Jewish practice. Students not only develop their skills in “reading” these photographic texts but ultimately create their own visual documents reflecting Jewish life and community.
Visual Literacy
Every day, our students are bombarded with visual stimulation—on the Internet, on TV and movie screens, even on their phones. How do we help them make sense of the images they see? How do we enable them to become critical consumers of visual culture?
One way is by slowing down their looking—getting students to think about the images they observe; the inferences, assumptions, and interpretations they make; the context and medium of the messages; and the author’s point of view.
Like written documents, photographs (and other visual media) can be thought of as “texts” to be read. And as is the case with written texts, one must first identify the surface meaning of an image, in order to get at the deeper understandings and interpretations. This is similar to the difference between p’shat and drash in the study of traditional Jewish texts. The p’shat is the simple meaning of a text; drash refers to its interpretation. The ability to discern fact from interpretation and the ability to draw inferences based on what is observable are important skills that have relevance beyond the realm of the visual arts.
The project is supported with a grant from the Covenant Foundation.