Study through photography

By Sergio Carmona  Florida Jewish Journal   9:45 AM EDT, July 19, 2011

The Jewish Lens program allows young people to explore Jewish identity, values and peoplehood through the use of photography and experiential Jewish curricula.

More than 200 schools in the United States and 50 in Israel are implementing the program founded by photographer Zion Ozeri. Among these Jewish institutions are six throughout Miami-Dade County. Through the generosity of local donors, the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and the Center for the Advancement of Jewish Education in Miami will introduce the program to these local institutions for the upcoming 2011-12 school year that will culminate in an end-of-year community-wide exhibition of students' work.

"The Jewish Lens curriculum provides the opportunity for students in Jewish day schools and congregational schools to explore their Jewish identity by looking at the world around them and capturing it through photography, thus providing a different creative venue for learning," said Valerie Mitrani, CAJE's co-director of educational services.

Ellen Goldberg, the GMJF's senior planning associate, added "If the students are taking a class in Jewish text study, they can take some of the lessons from that study and visually interpret it so that it has a personal meaning as the program really helps their own personal interruption of Judaism come alive."

Goldberg also added, "The beauty of the program is that every kid has a camera, whether it's a personal camera or one in his or her phone. Access to photography is like never before. It's a very visual society."

Rabbi Moishe Kievman, co-director for one of the institutions implementing the program, Chabad Chayil's Hebrew after-school program in Aventura, said "The children's gain will be three-fold."

"In addition to this unique hands on visually engaging way of learning, children will learn photography skills," Kievman added. "They will then be empowered to use those skills to tell their own story of what Jewish life means to them."

Joy Schandler, Jewish Learning director for Temple Beth Am's religious school in Miami, said the institution is introducing the curriculum to its sixth grade students.

"With their participation in the Jewish Lens curriculum, they will explore what it means to be part of the world wide Jewish community — how each individual makes a difference and how each individual is an essential part of the whole," Schandler said.

Other local institutions implementing the program include Hochberg Preparatory School, the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center's Hebraica Maccabi Tzair Youth Program, the Samuel Scheck Hillel Community Day School | The Ben Lipson Hillel Community High School in North Miami Beach and Temple Judea's religious school in Coral Gables. In addition, two schools from Miami's partner city of Yerucham, Israel, will participate in the program.