The Women Who Reconstructed American Jewish Education, 1910-1965

8. Temima Gezari: An Art Education Pioneer

฀ ฀ 1905–2009
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@^sZkb 166 ofra arieli backenroth A s a professionally trained Jewish educator and artist, Temima Gezari laid the foundation for teaching Jewish studies through the arts and for art education in Jewish schools. Gezari studied in a Benderly school as a young girl, experiencing the synthesis of Jewish and progressive education firsthand. Alexander Dushkin, a Benderly boy, and Mordecai Kaplan encouraged her efforts to promote the use of art in Jewish education. A “born teacher,” she paved the way for the profusion of today’s arts-infused Jewish educational programs (T. Gezari, 2002c, 19). Using the methodology of Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis (1997), I paint a verbal portrait of Gezari, whose contributions to Jewish education span eighty years. For my research, I interviewed Gezari, her family, her students, and her colleagues at the Jewish Theological Seminary (jts) and at the Bureau of Jewish Education of New York. In addition I used archival materials, read her books, articles, papers, the bulletins of the Jewish Education Committee, and Brush and Color, the journal she created, wrote for, and edited. Student of Art and Judaism Temima Gezari, née Fruma Nimtzowitz, was born on December 27, 1905, in Pinsk, Russia. She came to the United States with her mother when she was nine months old to reunite with her father who had left Europe to look for a better life in the New World. She lived with her parents, sister, and brother in the back of her father’s hardware store on Pitkin Avenue in Brownsville, New York. Her first grade teacher, Ms. McKenny, singled her out as a gifted artist and sent a note of praise about her drawing skills to her parents. Her father, a devoted family man, recognized her talent and took her every day on the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan for art classes, a gesture that impressed her greatly (T. Gezari, 2002c, 36; D. Gezari, 1985). In 1912, Gezari enrolled herself in a Jewish school, Prep School for Girls No. 3, a Benderly model school. Her father was more interested in her progress and accomplishments in the arts than in her Jewish education (T. Gezari, 2002c, 42). In Benderly’s schools boys and girls were educated according to new principles of the “natural method” of teaching the Hebrew language, Ivrit b’Ivrit (teaching Hebrew by speaking only Hebrew), reading the stories of the Bible, and learning about Jewish rituals and holidays through art, music, and dance. The elementary programs focused on Jewish music, dramatics, biblical history , holidays, and some Hebrew, and the high school programs were geared toward preparing the next generation of Jewish educators (Winter, 1966). Temima Gezari 167 Gezari loved the teachers at the school—“young women, idealistic and enthusiastic” (T. Gezari, 2002c, 43). She was fascinated by the Bible stories she learned and enjoyed social activities, especially the frequent picnics. She often commented on how much she appreciated the lively spirit and the interesting way Judaism was introduced in the school. Gezari continued her Jewish education during high school and eventually taught art at the same school (T. Gezari, 2002c, 43). Throughout her high school years, She took art classes with Beulah Stevenson, a social realist painter. Social realism focused specifically on social issues and the hardships of everyday life; urban American artists of the Depression era found it appropriate for their drawings and paintings. The encounter with this style made a lasting impact on Gezari, who had a strong social conscience and was seeking a form of art that lent itself to depicting social issues. Becoming a Jewish Teacher Upon her graduation from high school in 1921, Gezari, passionate about Judaism, enrolled in the Teachers Institute (ti) of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America during an exciting time in which the arts were being introduced into the curriculum. Mordecai Kaplan, who would become a significant mentor for Gezari, infused the ti with the philosophy he delineated in Judaism as a Civilization (1934), his magnum opus. In this book he defines Judaism as a civilization, characterized by beliefs and practices and by language, culture, literature, ethics, art, history, social organization, symbols, and customs. Kaplan promoted the notion of a synagogue center, which offered prayer services, but also study programs, drama, dance, song, sports, and exercise. He believed that the solution to Jewish education “required...