Jewish festivals in the religious school; a handbook for entertainments

Front matter

Copyright N?_

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

UNION GRADED SERIES

Preface

This volume is intended to serve both as a guide to those who desire to give holiday entertainments and as a source book containing program material for the Jewish festivals. The instructions on staging, coach¬ ing, etc., are intended primarily for teachers and club leaders with no dramatic training. The material pre¬ sented, much of it appearing for the first time in book form, should be welcome to both the amateur and pro¬ fessional dramatic teacher, as well as to club leaders desirous of giving Jewish entertainments of a more informal character.

In addition to explicit directions for preparing the program, I have given enough material to furnish three model programs for Succoth, Chanukah, Purim, Passover and Shabuoth, the programs for the lastnamed being suitable for Closing Day exercises of the Religious School as well. In arranging these pro¬ grams I have been guided in my choice of material by pedagogical principles, believing that dramatics have a distinctly educational value in the curriculum of the Religious School. For this reason many charming plays and recitations without educational or distinctly Jewish value have been omitted.

It would be impossible to thank by name the many Religious School superintendents and teachers whose suggestions have aided me in writing this book; so* I make indention only of Dr. S. Benderly, of New York City, who first worked out with me the principles which have guided me in this work, and my husband, who has aided both as censor and constructive critic.

Elma Ehrlich Levinger.

Wilmington, Del., April, 1923.

Contents

PREFACE.

Introduction

Preparation of Holiday Entertainments in the Religious School. 3

SUCCOTH.

In the Class-room. lg

Stories About Succoth. 28

The Succoth Program. 30

Plays for Succoth. 34

CHANUKAH.

In the Class-room. 53

Stories About Chanukah. 64

The Chanukah Program. 66

Plays for Chanukah. 69

Model Program III. 103

PURIM.

In the Class-room. Ill

Stories About Purim. 117

The Purim Program. 118

Plays for Purim. 123

Model Program III. 150

IX

X

CONTENTS

PASSOVER. Page

In the Class-room. 159

Stories About Passover. 173

The Passover Program. 175

Plays for Passover. 177

Model Program III. 198

SHABUOTH.

In the Class-room. 209

Stories About Shabuoth. 215

The Shabuoth Program. 217

Plays for Shabuoth. 221

Model Program III. 248

APPENDIX. 251

PART II Plays, Pageants and Tableaux

SUCCOTH.

The Golden Staff—An Operetta. 279

CHANUKAH.

The Unlighted Menorah—A Fantasy. 305

PURIM.

The Star of Judah—Play with Tableaux. 375

CONTENTS

XI

PASSOVER. Page

The Silver Cup—A Folk Play. 449

SHABUOTH OR CLOSING DAY EXERCISES.

Ruth of Moab—A Springtime Play. 503

Let There Be Light—A Pageant. 517

PLATES FOR COSTUMES. 551

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 574

Part I

A HANDBOOK FOR

ENTERTAINMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Preparation of Holiday Entertainments in the Religious School

HE place of the holiday entertainment in the reli-

1 gious school is no longer a question of debate. Its purpose at first glance seems to be merely to amuse the pupils. But it is not enough for the holiday en¬ tertainment to be amusing. If so, why such excite¬ ment year after year, why such overworking of unenthusiastic teachers and coaching of children who often have to be bribed or bullied into attending rehearsals? Why not amuse the children in the easiest way pos¬ sible—as not ia few Sabbath Schools have done on Chanukah or Purim—by engaging professional per¬ formers, or by hiring a picture show for the after¬ noon? The children will be far more amused than by the feeble efforts of poorly-trained fellow pupils in a hastily prepared entertainment.

If, on the other hand, we wish to instruct the child as well as amuse him, our holiday entertainments must be planned with the double aim of amusement and instruction in view. Educators have long ago agreed that the dramatic method is one of the most effective means employed in pedagogy. The Exodus thrills the child with a strange awe when he beholds the persecuted ones of Egypt pausing to glorify God beside the Red Sea; the story of the long wandering in the Wilderness and the pastoral life of our fathers become far more vivid through tableaux and song;

Esther never really lives until the children actually see her pleading before the king. Succoth, Passover, Purim—the words glow with a new meaning when the child finds the dry bones of history vivified through the charm of the dramatist’s art.

Thus the child learns certain historical facts; but this is not'enough. The inspiration of the story of Jewish history may be increased tenfold if the child’s emotional nature is stirred and is deepened. As the boy in Hawthorne’s parable of “The Great Stone Face” grew like the vision he loved from his youth, so our children may become more heroic when, as Miriam, and Judah and Esther, they embody the heroic ideals of our people.

But this twofold purpose of the entertainment, amusement and education, is not achieved without long and intensive labor. No Hebrew teacher would dream of leading his pupils to the prophetic books until they had mastered more than the rudiments of the language; no director of a children’s choral so¬ ciety would venture to present a program without careful rehearsing. Neither the Hebrew teacher nor the choirmaster should dare to begin a year’s work without a definite goal in view, whether it be a fluent translation from Isaiah or the execution of a difficult cantata. But the holiday entertainment is usually left to chance, often handed over to an overworked or inexperienced Sabbath School teacher a few weeks before the holiday occurs. A play is hastily chosen, indifferently coached and produced; one child prodigy is asked to dance; another allowed to sing the latest hit in vaudeville; a third recites the selection prescribed for her by her elocution teacher, which usu¬ ally turns out to be a bit of dialect or something as glaringly inappropriate as "The Night Before Christ¬ mas”. These "extra numbers” are seldom rehearsed. At the performance, the play is literally pitched upon the boards and the extra performers present their re¬ ligious minstrel show.

It is against such an outrage which occurs in far too many of our Religious Schools every year that the author, who for the last ten years has struggled for the cause of better entertainments for Jewish children, wishes to protest.

Perhaps the most necessary adjustment to be made in the present-day holiday entertainment, even when thoughtfully planned and executed, is along the lines of Grading. Every child in the Religious School from the five-year-old, impatient to see his first Purim play, to the blase confirmand who wishes "they’d give something new for a change”, should be considered in the celebration of the holiday. So important is the feature of the ideal entertainment that we have de¬ voted pages 14-16 to explaining the meaning of the term and to suggestions for adapting the program to the needs of the various grades.

Alternation of holiday entertainments must also be considered. This is especially true in the smaller schools where the brunt of the work necessary for preparing a successful entertainment falls upon a few gifted children. Children who have worked hard to produce a Chanukah play should not be asked to re¬ hearse for a Purim Pageant. Confirmands who the year before may have ample time to participate in a

Purim celebration should have no part in a Purim pro¬ gram when they are preparing for Confirmation. Even in a larger school, where different (groups may be called upon to do their share for the different holi¬ days, it is often unwise to plan too many elaborate entertainments for one year. At best, they involve a certain amount of nerve strain for both teachers and pupils ; even more serious is the tendency of the pupils to think of their Sabbath School as a sort of theater. If, as has often been charged, the Jewish child is sometimes guilty of ostentation and love of the lime¬ light, his Sabbath School at least should be clean of such tendencies.

For this reason, it seems best to give one large en¬ tertainment every year. One year it may be a mid¬ winter festival in honor of Chanukah; the next year a full-length program for Purim; the third year an out¬ door pageant for Shabuoth. This does not mean that the other holidays are neglected. Shorter and simpler programs should be given and, like the more elaborate entertainments, should be planned with great care. The smallest entertainment, if it is worth doing, is worth doing well.

Since the task of preparing the entertainment often falls upon a teacher who, for all her knowledge of pedagogy and Jewish history, is hopelessly at sea when coaching a play for the first time, a few Sugges¬ tions for acting, choosing a cast and similar difficulties may not be unwelcome. As Purim is the most univer¬ sally celebrated holiday in the Sabbath School, most of the examples will be drawn from that festival.

As the play is usually the nucleus of any entertainment, the following very brief suggestions will deal chiefly with the dramatic aspects of the program, it being taken for granted that the music and the oc¬ casional dancing are in adequate hands. These two very important features should, whenever possible, be taken out of the province of the busy dramatic di¬ rector ; in nearly every Sabbath School one finds grade-school teachers capable of teaching these branches, and they should be held responsible for their share in the entertainment, after sufficient con¬ sultations and planning with the producer of the play.

The selection of the play is a matter of very great importance. Unfortunately the field has been but little developed and the material suitable for presen¬ tation by Jewish children is painfully small. How¬ ever, the dramatic director should make certain that the play he has chosen is the very best play avail¬ able for his purpose, that it best expresses the phase he desires to bring out in the holiday celebration (say the ceremonial aspects of Purim or the historical side of Passover), and is neither too long nor too difficult for his pupils to present. In this case, it is often a simple matter to omit several scenes or even a whole act, provided the director has sufficient skill to write in several speeches to cover the omitted action. In any case, long speeches can be simplified or scenes “built up” by the introduction of tableau effects or appropriate musical selections.

The play once chosen, the director selects his cast. If the Sabbath School boasts a Dramatic Club, the task is an easy one. If the players are to be chosen from the school at large, it has been found most practical to ask the children from the grades that are to furnish the entertainment to meet after one of the regular sessions of Sabbath School to discuss the com¬ ing play. If the school is large, the director is likely to face a veritable mob of stage aspirants. Many are eliminated by the simple process of stating the days for rehearsal, which will often conflict with music les¬ sons and other home duties. With younger children, it is often best to secure the parents’ consent, especial¬ ly if they live at any great distance from the place of rehearsals. The director should also exercise discretion in assigning parts to pupils who are notoriously un¬ ruly, tardy or unreliable; one reads pretty stories of bad boys being reformed through amateur dramatics; but the director cannot always afford to risk demoral¬ izing her company for the sake of one or two incorrigibles.

After this weeding out process, the cast and the director meet to read the play together. This means a copy for every speaking character in the play. It is disgraceful economy to seek to save fifteen cents or even a quarter by placing a mutilated copy of the play in the children’s hands, to say nothing of the stupid device of asking a busy director to copy the separate parts. The child should read the play as a whole, not only to get his complete cues, but to acquire the proper spirit and atmosphere. In many cases, the children will buy their own copies; if not, the congre¬ gation should consider it a legitimate expense.

The play is now read as a whole, the director call¬ ing upon first one child to read a certain part, now another. Of course, he has distinct types in mind, and has no one read Esther hut girls of the right age and stage presence. In this way he tests their voices— notes their feeling for the lines. He learns that a boy who has been called upon to read Mordecai has an im¬ perfection in speech and decides he cannot include him in the cast; the next Mordecai has a fine, clear voice, and has such dignity that he mentally puts him aside for Ahasuerus. When Esther is chosen, he picks her closest rival for Yashti, the third choice receiving the smaller part of the handmaid. And he must be very careful to avoid the “star system”. The boy who made a splendid Judah on Chanukah should re¬ ceive a minor part on Purim; it is better to give the Hannah of the last performance the part of a court lady, even if she does make an ideal Esther, rather than run the risk of turning an unaffected child into a spoiled and petted leading lady. The new Esther may be a little harder to coach, but every director will agree that nothing is more undesirable than exploit¬ ing a talented child.

• The cast chosen with due attention to voice and type—don’t ask a timid little lad to defy Haman, or a boy with an angelic smile to play that villain!—set the dates for rehearsals, and stick to them. The mod¬ ern child is so overburdened with music lessons, danc¬ ing school and home work that rehearsals often rob him of his only free afternoons. If he is strong enough to stand the extra strain, and interested enough to make the sacrifice, well and good. Otherwise he should be dropped for the second unexcused absence from re¬ hearsal. One example is usually enough to impress the rest of the cast.

Discipline is a negligible quality at rehearsals if the children are interested and the director knows his business. The director who comes to rehearsals knowing as little about the play as the children; who keeps his eyes glued to his copy instead of handing it over to an older pupil as “prompter”, cannot expect the same response as the coach who keeps things mov¬ ing throughout the rehearsal, filling even the dullest actor with “pep” and persuading the most conceited child that he alone is master of the situation. Rehearsals should not be too long; if possible, they should be given on the stage where the final performance takes place. If this is out of the question, try to arrange your temporary stage with exits exactly like those for the real performance; it is often wise to mark imag¬ inary exits with chairs. Begin to use properties as early as possible and have at least one dress rehearsal. At the end of this rehearsal all the properties should be placed in a convenient spot in the order in which they are to be used during the performance. The ap¬ pointment of a reliable, older pupil to hand these out on the day of the play’s presentation will avoid much confusion and unnecessary delay. In this connection, it is well to remind the producer that nothing is so fatal to a successful performance as tiresome “waits” between the acts. These may in many cases be elim¬ inated by a judicious arrangement of the program, since recitations and essays and group songs may be given before the curtains while the stage is being pre¬ pared for the next act.

One word should suffice for the acting. Don’t allow acting! Pill your players with the spirit of the play and they will be themselves. Avoid stage atti¬ tudes and exaggerated gestures, except in pantomime or pageant.

It is also worth remembering that tableaux and recitations as well as the play should be carefully coached. An excellent pamphlet on the presentation of Biblical tableaux has been prepared by Samuel S. Grossman and may be purchased from Young Judea. The child with a recitation should have at least one rehearsal on the stage to be used for the final per¬ formance, a listener in the rear of the auditorium halting the recitation whenever the speaker’s voice fails to carry. His gestures, already planned by the coach, should be carefully rehearsed. Above all, the director should be sure that the performer has a clear idea of what his recitation means. To illustrate, with the recitation, “Esther before the King”, given below:

See that the reciter knows the story—why Esther went to the king—her danger. What is the meaning of the name Esther? Why is she called the Myrtle in the poem? Just what does the Bible tell us she said when she set out to plead with the king? Why have the centuries since the first Purim often proved “weary” to the Jew? Let your voice at the end ring out with the proud assurance that Esther has indeed saved her people.

Forbid make-up in natural light, and when artifi¬ cial lighting is used be as sparing as possible with rouge and the lip-stick. These articles, perfectly proper on the professional stage, are glaringly out of place in the Sabbath School. In many cases hair may be powdered, as wigs are usually heavy and cumbersome.

Beards should be used as little as possible, as they generally tend to make the young player nervous. When used, the most desirable are the crepe paper variety.

Except for the elaborate productions, it is best not to rent the costumes. The children should be given typewritten directions for their costumes describing the cut, color and material to be employed. But in these days of mothers often too busy to do extra work for the Sabbath School or too inexpert with the needle to attempt even simple sewing, the best plan is to have the costumes made for the children, charging those who can afford to pay for the material. A seam¬ stress can be hired by the day, and with a little super¬ vision can turn out an amazingly large portion of the simple robes in a few hours. * Better yet, the director or the wardrobe mistress whom he appoints, can meet with the members of the local Sisterhood or the mothers themselves, cut out and design the costumes, which the women can make in a day, not only saving money but experiencing what for some of them may be a novel treat—working for the Sabbath School. In some cases, these costumes can be made by the older girls of the post-confirmation classes or turned over to the senior members of the dramatic club.

Should the costume plates prepared especially for this volume not suffice, any good illustrated Bible will be found rich in suggestions for costumes of any of the plays laid in Biblical times. The Tissot pictures, issued by Perry Co., Boston, Mass., are excellent. Modern pictures of the inhabitants of Palestine are also helpful, and Maxfield Parrish’s studies from the Arabian Nights are especially fine for color suggestions. The Jewish Encyclopedia and Oppenheim’s pictures are useful in costuming plays of a later date. Cheese cloth and the various lin¬ ing goods are excellent, and little trimming is needed except what the children themselves supply— a string of beads, a colored cord or waist cloth, a bright scarf or a diadem made of pasteboard and gold paper. Only don’t expect the children to think of these additions for themselves. The costumer should discuss these details with each member of the cast, planning the arrangement of the hair for the girls and insisting that every member of the company wear white stockings and sandals. These may be replaced by slippers or gymnasium “sneakers” or made from inner soles, laced with ribbon; but the wardrobe mis- • tress should not allow a stage picture to be marred by heavy, neatly-blackened shoes extending beneath a priest’s classic white robes, or a messenger appearing in pink slippers with French heels.

Nearly all properties can be made or borrowed. It is far better to borrow a hanging lamp from a friend’s cozy corner than use some of the atrocities which the professional costumer keeps on hand. Dishes for a banquet may be kitchenware covered with gold paper; the king’s goblet is a glass of graceful design simi¬ larly disguised. Boys in manual training classes can turn out spears and swords which the girls in the play can cover with silver paper when they make the crowns and cover the king’s scepter. Bits of bright paper placed on them in conventional designs make good oriental jewelry. It is very easy to interest the lower classes in this handwork, and many of the children are willing to meet for several afternoons in order to do their share of work for the play.

Be careful in the choice of furniture, especially for Biblical plays. Do not use stiff class-room chairs for a palace scene; an old kitchen chair properly draped gives the right regal effect. A couch or arm¬ chair likewise disguised serves as a throne. A brass urn filled with red roses, a crimson curtain thrown across a carved chair, and a lion skin which the au¬ thor borrowed from one of the pupils, Actually sug¬ gested a royal apartment; on the other hand, a Zionist banner allowed to remain draped across the wall be¬ cause 4 ‘there wasn’t time to take it down”, was an irritating flaw in a playlet dealing with the life of Moses Mendelssohn. “Take care of your scenery and details”, says Constance Mackay, “and much of your play will take care of itself. ’ ’

Every public library contains reference books which will be of value to the dramatic coach. The following have proved most useful to the author, both for inspiration and directly practical suggestions:

REFERENCE BOOKS

The Children's Educational Theatre.— Alice Minnie Herts. Harper & Bros.

Shorter Bible Plays.— Rita Benson. Abingdon Press.

Costumes and Scenery for Amateurs.— Constance D’arcy Mackay. Henry Holt & Co.

Pageants and Pageantry.— Bates & Orr. Ginn & Co. Festivals and Plays.— Percival Chubb. Harper & Bros.

The Dramatization of Bible Stories.— Elizabeth E. Miller. The School of Education, University of Chicago.

The last work will be found especially helpful for suggestions in costuming and hints for incidental mu¬ sic, while the Mackay book is unusually fine for the coach who has to labor against such difficulties as a small stage and no scenery. For excellent suggestions for American and Jewish Festivals, the Holiday Enve¬ lopes issued by Young Judea, as well as the pamphlets issued by the Jewish Welfare Board (N. Y. C.) and the Jewish Festival Books of the Bureau of Jewish Education (N. Y. C.) are most useful.

The Special Character of the Entertainment should depend largely upon the age of the pupil. It is enough, to take one example, if the very young child learns to enjoy Purim; if he learns a few facts concerning the identity of Esther and Mordecai, so much the bet¬ ter. As the child advances in the Sabbath School, he not only acquires more facts with the recurrence of the holiday each year, but should be taught to draw more inspiration from the historical material. To the child of five, Esther is little more than the Cinderella heroine of a Jewish fairy tale; the child of ten can be made to feel something of God’s care for His people; the adolescent is fired to emulate the heroism of Mor¬ decai and Esther in a modern Jewish crisis.

For this reason, grading is as necessary in the en¬ tertainment department as in any other phase of the religious curriculum. The pupil in the primary de¬ partment should not be expected to listen while his teacher draws from the Purim story an inspirational lesson which only an adolescent could grasp; the boy in the Confirmation Class should not be bored by the bare recital of the facts which he has heard without alteration for the last seven weary Purims. If he has been well taught it should be taken for granted that by the time he reaches the third or fourth grade he knows the story as well as he should know the story of the First Thanksgiving. Then let the teacher spend a little time in telling him how Purim was spent in later days, striving to give him a feeling for the cere¬ monialism usually so lacking in his own home. If a few of these customs can be revived, say, the good old habit of Shalach Monoth , the holiday will cease to be an outworn shell, but will become a living reality. While to the higher grades, the life lessons of Esther and Mordecai may be made to serve as stepping-stones to the study of the Jewish heroes and heroines of our own day.

It has been found best to divide the children into three divisions: The Primary Division (5-7), the Inter¬ mediate (8-10), the Senior (11-14)—at least in the large graded school. In the small school it may be found necessary to use the two terms, Junior Division (5-9) and Senior (10-14). Dramatic Clubs will nat¬ urally fall under the head of Intermediate or Senior, depending upon the ages of the members.

It is with these divisions in mind that the author has planned both the supplementary work in the class¬ room and the model programs. The latter, especially, should be arranged to include representatives from every division, that the younger children may also take an active part and learn through participation.

SUCCOTH

S INCE the late opening of many of our Religious Schools often means that Succoth will be the first of the holidays celebrated, the teacher should spend a little time in introducing the idea of the Jewish fes¬ tivals before beginning the story in the class-room. With the primary children she should emphasize the fact that Jewish children have a number of holidays of their own, as well as those enjoyed by all American children; Succoth as well as Thanksgiving, Rosh Hashanah as well as the civil New Year. She should also explain why the little ones just beginning to at¬ tend public school should come to Sabbath School in¬ stead on Succoth, and that this custom is to be con¬ tinued through the year. Above all, she must give the little ones a thrill of anticipation. Succoth is a very happy festival, the teacher tells them, and through the year Jewish children enjoy many more which they will learn about in turn.

Now comes the center of all class-room work—the story. For the primary child the Succoth story should be little more than a study in gratitude, and should run something like this: We are grateful to our pa¬ rents for food and clothing, but these things come from God. We thank our parents when they give us presents, and try to show how thankful we are by obeying them and pleasing them in every w^ay. When we talk to God it is called praying, and some prayers are said just to thank Him for His goodness.

This is usually a good time to introduce one of the simpler forms of “Grace at Meals”. The two trans¬ lations given below are taken from Jessie E. Sampter’s little volume, “Around the Year in Rhymes” (Bloch), a collection of charming verses which should be in the hands of every teacher of young children. In some cases the Hebrew form may be learned at once; for some children, especially the very little ones, it is often wisest to give the English equivalent later, teaching the Hebrew as one of the first lessons in the language.

BLESSING ON BREAKING BREAD

Blessed art Thou, 0 Lord our God,

King of the World, who from the clod Makest our daily bread to grow.

Not only we His blessings know,

But all the ripening summer days The wheat and barley sing His praise.

The other selection, more difficult, and therefore more suitable for older children w r ho have had more Hebrew instruction, follows:

Blessed art Thou, 0 God our King,

The Lord of every time and place,

Who feedest every living thing

With goodness, kindness, love and grace.

He gives their bread to all that live Because His kindness lasts forever;

Our food He gave us, and will give

With goodness, and shall fail us never;

He nourishes both great and small,

Sustains and cares for every soul,

For His great name’s sake keeps us all.

Blessed be God, who feeds the whole.

Remind the children we thank God not only in onr prayers, but in trying to please Him. So at Succoth we follow the old Jewish custom of sharing our bless¬ ings. We are not farmers, and cannot give grain and fruit from our own fields, but we can buy and bring fruit to the Temple to make the altar beautiful, and afterwards send it to poor children whose parents can¬ not give them all the good things we enjoy.

Having developed the two themes of the holiday, gratitude and charity, which are comprehensible to the young child, sketch a little of the historical back¬ ground and origin of the Festival, being careful that the child is given no more than he can easily digest. The story in its simplest form should run something like this:

Before the Jewish people entered Palestine, they roamed about the desert for many years, just as the Indians used to do in this country. You have all seen pictures of an Indian house or tent (it may be well to sketch one rapidly on the board), and while the Jew¬ ish people lived in the desert they also dwelt in rough little houses that were something like these tents. We will build some of our own in a few minutes, that we can see just how the Jewish people lived.