For the past few weeks, Omanut has been concentrating on Ancient Israel and how our ancestors used tiles and mosaics to decorate their surroundings and have embarked on a pretty big project to create our own tile masterpiece based on studying information and pictures about The Lod Mosaic, an incredible mosaic found in Lod, Israel in the mid 1990's that is 1,700 years old! The mosaic was discovered when they were attempting to expand a roadway in Lod, only 3 feet from the surface and as it was unearthed, it was revealed to be in amazingly good condition, which is almost unheard of in a piece of that age and size. For more information, please go to the official website, and ask your child(ren) about it!
Lod Mosaic
Our class is doing our own version of the Lod Mosaic and as of this week, it is almost complete! It has been time consuming, but exciting for all of us to see it 'come to life'. In between learning more Hebrew Through Movement and songs with Maya, we have been super busy and can't wait to unveil our mosaic at the end-of-the-year Omanut Art Show. The mosaic will also feature short essays comparing the Lod Mosaic, information about it, how our mosaic compares to it, and how we developed the aspects of design in it. We also making time to finish up the lovely glass mosaic that will be put up permanently on the wall just outside of the doors of Gan Ilan. It is both a mitzvah and our joy in Omanut to add to the Gan Ilan mosaic!
Our hallway bulletin board is now showcasing Omanut's beautiful display for our sister synagogue in Israel, Congregation Natan-Ya. We hope that you will take the opportunity to see it in person. Natan-Ya was very touched and sent us a warm email of gratitude and love. The students were very proud!
At the end of February, we will be having our Family Program with an incredible Ketubah artist and Sofrit (scribe of Torah) that shouldn't be missed! More information will be coming soon and we hope your family will come to make your own Family Ketubah.
All the best to you all, as always!
Heather
Some pictures of our mosaic:
