Women of the Book Educational Component

The core educational principles of Women of the Book are collaboration, social change, meaningful art-making and empowered engagement with sacred Jewish text and with each other.

Traditionally, women have been excluded from the canon of midrashic interpretation. Women of the Book gives women joint ownership of the customs of interpretation by presenting new models of study and expression where women, men and children can engage with Torah in fresh and personally transformative ways.

Project participant, artist Siona Benjamin, born and raised in India, demonstrates, in a short documentary film, the possibility of a woman artist engaging a community in the making of midrash: http://practicalmattersjournal.org/issue/2/centerpieces/visions-of-ezekiel.

Women of the Book's midrashic scroll will be exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. And community-based exhibitions and learning events will be held—at synagogues, Jewish community centers, and at other settings and institutions.

The Women of the Book curriculum incorporates the display of exhibition print sets—art prints of the 54 panels of the midrashic torah—and contemporary midrashim (interpretations/commentaries) by Jewish women artists and scholars. This interactive curriculum, designed for synagogues and other educational settings, will provide programming, which will establish women as co-owners of the tradition of making and teaching midrash.

Accompanying the exhibits and educational events will be an art book featuring the work of the artists alongside ancient and contemporary midrashim, interviews with and reflections by the participating artists, as well as essays by leading Jewish feminist thinkers and curators.

Educational Programming will include

• Seminars and training for educators in formal and informal Jewish settings
• Community-wide events that focus dialogue on women’s voices in contemporary Judaism, and how their participation can strengthen Jewish communities
• Workshops that explore art and Jewish text, the role of art and women in society, art as a means for personal transformation, and art and social change
• A conference on women, text and art for Jewish women artists, women scribes, scholars and educators

Contact Women of the Book — info@womenofthebook.org — to schedule a workshop, seminar, or to sign up for an international day of learning to coincide with the launch of the completed scroll.