Shemini Atzeret - Simhat Torah

Subject: Multicultural/Social Studies/Art

Grade Levels: Pre-K through 12

Objectives:

• To acquaint students with part of the Jewish life cycle
• To introduce students to a festival from another culture
• To have students imagine what it would be like to have to hide their traditions
• To understand the rich heritage of the Jewish people

Sunshine State Standards:

• Grades PreK-2
  • SS.A.1.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 5.1.4

• Grade 3-5
  • SS.A.2.2.3, 3.2.2, 5.2.6

• Grades 6-8
  • VA.A.1.3.1, 1.3.2
  • VA.B.1.3.1, 1.3.2, 1.3.3
  • VA.C.1.3.1, 1.3.2
  • VA.D.1.3.2
  • SS.A.1.3.3, 3.3.9, 5.3.5

• Grades 9-12
  • VA.A.1.4.1, 1.4.2
  • VA.B.1.4.1,1.4.2
  • VA.C.1.4.1, 1.4.2
  • VA.D.1.4.2
  • SS.A.1.4.3, 3.4.9, 5.4.5

View all Sunshine State Standards

Materials:

• sketch pads
• 2B and 4B pencils
• erasers-kneaded, gum
• brushes, watercolor #6 and #10
• watercolor block 18" x 24"
• India ink (optional)
• pastels (optional)

Procedure:

Day One

Moshe Rynecki was a painter whose work often directed attention to the persecution of the Jews. He lived in the Warsaw ghetto and died at Majdanek. View Simhat Torah, ca. 1920, 33.5x46.3cm Oil on cardboard.

Simchat Torah - Two Paintings, by Chaim Goldberg and Emmanuel Levy

• Instruct the class on the significance of the:
  • Synagogue
  • Jewish festivals
  • Jewish tradition, especially the emphasis they place upon the family
  • Torah

• Ask the class if they think traditions and celebrations are important.
• Why would the Nazis want to destroy Jewish traditions and festivals?
• Discuss the mood Rynecki paints into his picture.
• Compare Rynecki's painting of Simchat Torah with Goldberg and Levy's for:
  • composition
  • similarities
  • mood
  • balance
  • line
  • symmetry
  • shape and mass
  • light, value, color
  • texture
  • space
  • time and motion
• Outline the composition in pencil on sketch pads.
• Discuss the dynamics of movement, the direction of the composition.
• Discuss the strength of the palette. Would Rynecki attain the same effect using a different palette?

Day Two

• Discuss the elements of an effective painting.
• Have students layout three thumbnail compositional designs of their intended painting.
• Choose the most dynamic presentation.
• Begin the layout on the watercolor block.
• Use a wash method, creating many subtle layers of paint.
• Finish painting with accents -[ Optional: ink, pastels ].

Day Three

• Gallery show
• Critique

Vocabulary:

• Atzeret - The final day of the Sukkot festival, coinciding in Reform Judaism with the holiday of Simchat Torah. (Orthodox Jews observe two separate days.)
• Simchah - Joy, happiness.
• Simchat Torah- "Rejoicing over the Torah." The festival marking the annual completion and recommencing of the Torah-reading cycle. Found in the book of Leviticus 23:36.
• Sukkot - "Booths." The autumn harvest festival. The name is derived from the practice of building a sukkah, or temporary dwelling, during the festival.
• Torah-(Lit. teaching, doctrine, or instruction). The scroll consisting of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible for reading in the synagogue. "Torah" is also used to describe the entire body of traditional Jewish teaching and literature.

Assessment:

The quality of the student's work can be assessed by:

• Peer and/or teacher review.
• Set up your classroom as a Holocaust Gallery and Museum.
  • Constructively critique each other's work
  • Plan a exhibition for the school
  • Offer your work as a traveling show to other schools and art councils within the community.

A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology,
College of Education, University of South Florida © 1997-2013.