Last month, our Middle School students were engaged in using special calligraphy pens to write words that really matter like Peace, Home, Love, and Community in both Hebrew and Arabic with our visiting Artist-in-Residence. Ruben Shimonov hails from Uzbekistan, a lesser known Jewish community in Central Asia, shared his journey of immigration to the US with our students along with many fascinating aspects of his culture and identity as a Sephardic and Mizrahi Jew and as an artist.

Through his calligraphy which seamlessly combines Hebrew, Arabic and Farsi, Mr. Shimonov builds bridges between his Jewish culture and that of the Muslim community in New York City and now Detroit. With his lively and warm personality, Mr. Shimonov was quick to build bridges with our middle schoolers as he presented a Jewish geography and history trivia game during our B’Tzavta assembly and through the calligraphy workshops he provided in art class. Enjoy scenes from our workshops and terrific examples of student work.