Goals:

• The participants will get to know pieces of art that refer to, or feature, Jerusalem.
• The participants will learn to differentiate between two different aspects of Jerusalem – heavenly and earthly.

The activity order:

1. Introduction.
2. Heavenly and earthly Jerusalem – getting to know Yehuda Amichai’s poem and the definition of the concepts of Heavenly Jerusalem and Earthly Jerusalem.
3. Learning about the “Kav 70” piece of art.
4. Learning about the “Water’ sculpture, the idea that stands behind it, and discussion on the importance of art.

Option 1: The activity leader will write “Jerusalem” in English and will show the participants. The participants will need to make up as many words as possible from the letters that make up Jerusalem

Option 2: The participants will need to gather as many different objects as they can (from in the room) and to make up the word “Jerusalem” (in English) from them.

The activity leader will read Yehuda Amichai’s poem “Why is Jerusalem Always Two?”

The leader will ask the participants what they think Heavenly Jerusalem and Earthly Jerusalem refer to.

Afterwards, the leader will split the participants into two groups- one will be “Heavenly Jerusalem” and one will be “Earthly Jerusalem “.

The leader will place several cards in the center of the room that show events, places and things connected to Jerusalem, with a short explanation on each card

The teacher will stand in the center of the room and present each picture. Each group needs to try to persuade the leader that the picture belongs to their heading. 

For example: 

• Does the Western Wall belong to Heavenly Jerusalem or Earthly Jerusalem? 
• Does a Falafel portion belong to Heavenly Jerusalem? 

The winning group is the one that succeeds in taking possession of as many pictures as possible.

At the end of the game, the leader will explain:

Jerusalem has two aspects to it. Like any reality- there is what can be seen by the naked eye and what can be understood as an idea. On the one hand, there are the values, ideas and big concepts that we live for, and on the other hand, there are the regular, daily and sometimes gross things that exist in reality.

Whoever wanders around Jerusalem will come across, the beauty and holiness as well as the daily routine- sometimes in the same place.

Now we will encounter both of those sides through the Kav 70 creation by the Dov Abramson Studio

The activity leader will show the participants the Kav 70 Project:

The creation divides the city of Jerusalem into 70 equal-sized cells. Each cell explores linear forms, spaces and shapes and all the cells come together to comprise a new, conceptual map of the city that shows Jerusalem in a refreshing, surprising light.

Jewish tradition teaches that the city of Jerusalem has seventy names taken from the Bible and other scriptures. “Kav 70” finds clues for these names among the daily, common components of “Earthly Jerusalem”- on sewage covers, drainage channels, sidewalks and parking lots- places that are not usually included in official tourist tours of the city.

The activity leader will give each group 16 cards that displays either 

• a name of Jerusalem
• a place in the city that served as inspiration for a tile in the “Kav 70” creation
• a description of a place that served as inspiration for a tile
•  and a tile from the “Kav 70” creation 

Each group has to match up the cards so that they end up with four groups of the above kinds of four cards.

At the end, the leader will ask:

• Did you succeed in identifying the value of the small items that appeared in the pictures?
• Do you think that these small items really express a big idea?
• Did the creation teach you something new about Jerusalem? If yes, tell us what.

Pieces of art can reveal very deep ideas about simple, day-to-day items. Like we saw in the “Kav 70” creation, a garbage can becomes an expression of lowness, and friendship is expressed by a biking path. This creation succeeds in connecting the two layers that we spoke about earlier- Heavenly Jerusalem and Earthly Jerusalem. Through the simplest things in Jerusalem, we can characterize very deep ideas that Jerusalem teaches us through its seventy names. This is the power of Jerusalem, and this is the power of the art that appears in it.

The third creation that we will speak about today is the “Water” creation by Micah Ullman.

The leader will ask the participants, “What comes to mind when you hear the word “water”?”

After hearing the participants’ answers, the leader will tell them about the “Water” creation (1996) – the name of a structure made by the Israeli artist Micah Ullman. The structure is comprised of two sewage covers, on which the artist impressed his handprints, and they are located in western and eastern Jerusalem.

The leader will put a picture of the creation on the floor and will go back to the first question that he asked- when talking about the word “water” did any of the participants think of a sewage cover. Probably not. The leader will ask the participants to think about that the artist was trying to express through his creation.

The leader will read Micah Ullman’s explanation about his creation, “The water system in Jerusalem is shared by both sections of the city, and everyone drinks the same water. The meaning of using water, used by both Jews and Arabs, is the meaning of peace.

Questions for Discussion:

• Would you ever have thought of connecting a sewage cover to the concept of “peace’
• Do you think a sewage cover belongs to “Heavenly Jerusalem” or “Earthly Jerusalem”
• Do you think that Micah Ullman’s message would have had the same effect if he had explained it in words and not in a piece of art? Why?
• Why do you think Micah Ullman specifically chose a “dirty” object like a sewage cover in order to speak about peace?

Heavenly and Earthly Jerusalem, as described by Yehuda Amichai. Heavenly Jerusalem can be found in day-to-day objects- peace, unity and beauty. This is what we have art for- to use the day-to-day things as a means of finding higher meaning.

The leader will scatter lots of pictures on the floor that show places, views and different things from Jerusalem, We will ask each participant to create an artistic collage from the pictures that expresses Heavenly and Earthly Jerusalem (or one of them), inspired by the art pieces that we learned about today.