“When the structure of the classroom is set up so that students must cooperate with one another in order to do well, they begin to see positive things in each other that they wouldn’t have seen while competing against each other,” he said.
“This creates a climate where prejudicial attitudes can begin to fade.”
Over the past 25 years, “The Jigsaw Classroom” has had a major impact on classrooms across the country.
Aronson, a professor emeritus of psychology, received the American Psychological Association’s 1998-99 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, considered the “Nobel Prize of psychology.” The award is the highest recognition offered to psychologists for a lifetime of research.
An opening reception 4 p.m. Sunday at Porter College Hall Gallery will kick off the two-week program. The discussion will feature artist Kitty Klaidman, whose exhibit “The Past Purged: Hidden Memories of the Holocaust” is on display, and Toni McElrath, who teaches art at San Francisco’s Academy of Art College and is a former art lecturer at U.C. Santa Cruz.
Klaidman’s exhibit depicts her own history as a child in wartime Czechoslovakia. She and her family were forced to hide in a dark, confined space for a year, but they emerged alive with help from Slovak farmers who hid them at the risk of their own lives.
Klaidman has been exhibiting her work since the mid-1960s in New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles and other cities. Her traveling exhibition “Witness and Legacy” is now touring museums throughout the United States.
At the Porter College Bridge Gallery, Santa Cruz Hillel will present its first collaborative Jewish student art exhibition. Ten U.C. Santa Cruz students will show their artistic interpretations on the theme of love.
Artwork ranges from installation, performance, printmaking, painting and photography.
A reception with student artists and live music will take place at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Porter College Bridge Gallery. Student guitarist Josh Friedman will perform classical, jazz and folk selections.
Both exhibits run through Friday, Feb. 25, with hours from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
A Traveling Jewish Theater will present “The Golden Bird” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets, available at the U.C. Santa Cruz ticket office, are $10 general admission, $5 students and senior.
“The Golden Bird,” an original work created by the 1999 ATJT apprentice program, is inspired by a tale from the legendary mystic Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (1772-1810). The play combines Old World wisdom, a contemporary search for meaning and identity and a dash of “Alice in Wonderland” surrealism on a journey of self-discovery.
The myth upon which the Golden Bird is based features the legendary Chassidic master, who reportedly took long walks in the woods of Bratslav in an effort to draw closer to God. In the fable he hears the majestic song of a bird, which captivates him and draws him deeper into the forest. Nachman believed that the bird’s song was so sweet it had the power to bring peace to the entire world.
In “The Golden Bird,” Julia Nachman Burwitz, the daughter of a wealthy timber industrialist, gets lost in the woods of Humboldt County. She glimpses a beautiful, golden bird flying over the forest and is transported on a quest to find it and the peace it promises. The journey of discovery leads her to faraway places and encounters with magical characters. Ultimately, she realizes that the bird’s message is about everyone’s responsibility to make the world a more peaceful place and taking responsibility for the environment.
This production is dedicated to Julia Butterfly Hill, who has spent the past two years living in Luna, a giant redwood in the Humboldt County forest, to protest the forest’s destruction.
“Contemporary Jewish Art: 1960’s-Present” will be the topic of a lecture by Nancy Berman, director and curator of the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles. She will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22 at the Baskin Arts Seminar Room.
She is former assistant curator of the Judaica department of the Jewish Museum in New York. While there, she participated in the excavation of the sixth century Beth Sh’ean Synagogue in Israel, acting as liaison between the archaeologists and student volunteers.
As the director of the museum component of the new Skirball Cultural Center, Berman has coordinated the schedule of temporary exhibitions such as “Henry Mosler: Rediscovered and Becoming American Women,” and she has also collaborated on the development of the core exhibition “Visions and Values: Jewish Life From Antiquity To America.”
The fifth annual Santa Cruz Alternative Jewish Film Festival is planned for Wednesday, Feb. 23 to Sunday, Feb. 27 at the Nickelodeon Theater, Capitola Theater and U.C. Santa Cruz campus.
Traditional egalitarian Shabbat services and a vegetarian organic dinner will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 25 at the GLBT Resource Center on campus. Cost is $5 general, $3 students.
The cultural events are presented by Santa Cruz Hillel, the Jewish Campus Resource Center and Foundation for Jewish Campus Life at U.C. Santa Cruz and Cabrillo College, in partnership with U.C. Santa Cruz’s Neufeld-Levin endowed chair in Holocaust studies, and the Helen and Sanford Diller Family Endowment in Jewish studies.
For information on all events, call Santa Cruz Hillel, (831) 426-3332 or check the Web at www.santacruzhillel.org