What is the role of culture, and children’s culture in particular, during times of war and national crisis? The October 7 attack has challenged Israeli artists, cultural leaders, creators, and therapists to rethink the role of children’s culture.
In this multidisciplinary collection of 25 essays, meditations, conversations, and original works of art, key questions relating to children’s culture during a time of war are explored:
What do we tell our children – and what do we hide from them?
What is the tale of good and evil that should be told during this war?
Which songs will make up the children’s soundtrack of the period?
What is the power of a child’s kaddish prayer in generating social cohesion?
Can children’s theater promote a humanistic worldview during times of violence and polarization?
In what way can the difficult “stuff of life” become a basis for literature?
How has the reading of canonical children’s stories changed following the trauma?
In what ways can art serve as a cathartic release and a safe space for processing traumatic experiences?
Created by the Mandel Program for Leadership in Jewish Culture, the anthology was designed to accompany a conference titled “I Promise You: Israeli Children’s Culture in the Shadow of War.” Edited by Yotam Schwimmer and Rabbi Mishael Zion, the collection combines thoughts and insights, documentation of life experience, and a new interpretation of fundamental cultural principles that highlight the importance of culture during times of war, and the manner in which it can help drive away the darkness.
Authors of articles in this volume include several members of the leadership and faculty of the Mandel Program for Leadership in Jewish Culture: Yael Hess, director of the Mandel Leadership Institute; Chen Artzi Sror, director of the Mandel Program for Leadership in Jewish Culture and a graduate of the program; faculty member Ruth Calderon; and Mishael Zion, founder and faculty member of the program. The balance of the contributors includes graduates of the program and prominent figures in the world of Israeli children’s culture.
The anthology is divided into sections focusing on wars of the past and struggles of the present, changing perspectives, and the healing power of culture. Following is a list of its authors and articles, in order of their appearance:
Yotam Schwimmer: Making a Sound, Inventing a Language
Mishael Zion: Israeli Childhood in the Shadow of War – Four Big Questions
Yael Hess: “I Had a Box of Crayons”: Songs of Peace from 1973 to Today
Pnina Geffen: How Does Children’s Culture Respond to War? A Conversation with Researchers of Children's Culture
Maayan Galili: How I Illustrated Uri Orlev’s Beast of Darkness
Noa Manheim: “The War of the Worlds" – On Heroes Winning in the Kingdom of Imagination, and on Battles in Reality
Rachel Shalev*: A Knock on the Door
Tamar Meir*: Daddy Goes to War – Books Written about and for Children of Reservists
Chen Artzi Sror*: Longing for Ursula – Why Do We Need Villains in Popular Culture?
Sarah Segal-Katz: “When All the Orphan in Me Trembles” – Creating Space for Mourning Children in Jewish-Israeli Culture
Kinneret Rosenbloom: Hugging Big Bears – On the Horror of the Public Teddy Bear Installations for the Hostages
Shuli Abitbol*: “Our Brothers, the Whole House of Israel” – On the Haredi Community, War, Children, and Culture
Ruth Calderon: A Story Without Legs
Hana Vazana Grunwald* and Naphtaly Shem Tov: When a Crocodile Came to Our Home – The Poetic, Pedagogical, Therapeutic, and Political in Children’s Theater
Yair Assulin*: “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” – A Political, Existential Reading of Dr. Seuss's Book
Neri Aluma: On Chaim Peri’s Book Irena and the Change in How Children's Books are Read
Yael Gidanian*: Every Night Becomes Morning – On the Power of a Lullaby
Tamar Hochstadter: A Heart Shaped Like a Fox
Saar Gamzo*: What Children Sing in War – Why Complexity is Absent from Children's Playlists
Kaid Abu Latif* in conversation with Yotam Schwimmer: A White Flag of Partnership
Naomi (Jaffe) Eini: Children in War – A Time for Meaning – How Can We Discover the Meaning that was Undermined?
Lila Noy: What Shall We Tell the Children? On the Power of Culture to Dwell Within Reality
Amir Harash: The Mystery of Ducky’s Duck – A Chapter from Mysteries at the See the Sea Hotel
Galia Oz: And Perhaps There is No Neverland – When Tragedy is Seen in Children's Faces
Merav Roth: The Book of Cats is About Me – On the Healing Power of Creating in the Face of Trauma
Danny Admasu: Three Poems
Tamar Hochstadter: Afterword: Give Them Truth
* Graduates of the Mandel Program for Leadership in Jewish Culture
