After sixth-graders at the Abraham Joshua Heschel School read rabbinic commentary on the story of Jacob and Esau, they could easily write an essay comparing the arguments of Esau's critics and defenders.

Instead of having them take out pencils and paper, their teacher, Shoshana Jedwab, passes out paints and other art supplies, and has the kids create two portraits of Esau: one as seen through the eyes of his critics and one through his defenders.

Are the people of the book becoming the people of the sketchbook?

Influenced by "multiple intelligence" theory, the trendy educational premise that says students can learn in a variety of ways besides the traditional verbal and logical methods classrooms have traditionally favored, Jewish education is becoming increasingly inclusive of the arts.

Proponents of arts in education assert that students tend to be more engaged and learn better when creative, hands-on activities are part of the curriculum, and a growing number of Jewish educational institutions throughout the country -- from congregational schools to campus Hillels to adult programs -- are beginning to take the theory to heart.

"Everyone, it doesn't matter what age, learns better through the arts," says Carol Spinner, executive director of Avoda: Objects of the Spirit, an organization founded three years ago that has been at the forefront of arts in education.

Consider some of these recent developments:

• The Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ohio State University's Jewish studies department are expected to unveil a Jewish arts in education Web site in the next few weeks. MeltonArts.org will feature lesson plans, exhibit sites and reference guides for teachers seeking to integrate the arts into their courses, and will facilitate networking on the topic among educators.

• The education schools at both JTS and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion offer courses on integrating the arts into the curriculum.

• Avoda is preparing to bring "Creating Commentary," an "arts beit midrash" course in which young artists combine traditional text study and art projects responding to the texts, to several American college campuses in the next year. The course already is offered at New York University, where participants have focused their studies on the theme of "covenant" in Jewish tradition.

• SAR Academy in Riverdale, N.Y. has invited artist Tobi Kahn to be "artist in residence" for the academy's new high school, scheduled to open next fall. The Modern Orthodox day school plans to make studio art a required course, and have its art teachers work with Judaic and secular studies faculty to bring arts into their courses.

• The Reform movement, which sponsors a series of intensive week-long adult Jewish learning retreats, recently added a Jewish arts retreat.

• For years, The Jewish Museum has offered a summer Jewish arts workshops for high school students, and now the Foundation for Jewish Camping is hoping to help found a national Jewish arts sleep-away camp.

The arts in Jewish education trend is not limited to the visual arts but also includes newfound interest in using music, filmmaking, dance and even creative writing as a way to teach about Judaism.

"Learning doesn't have to be simply listen, memorize and do," says Mareleyn Schneider, who chairs the arts network of the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education.

A sociology professor at Yeshiva University and an avid avocational artist, Schneider recently edited a CAJE-published book of lesson plans using the arts. The plans include Jewish texts and detailed instructions for relevant arts-and-crafts projects, often having students make their own ritual objects.

"When kids learn trope and have their own yad [pointer] when they go to read Torah, then they get very excited," Schneider says. "Especially in congregational schools kids have lecture after lecture. All they hear are words. When they come into a class where it's ‘let's do,' then everything is easy after that."

Using the arts as a vehicle for Jewish learning comes at a time that the arts world seems more open to Judaism. Jewish topics and themes, once almost taboo among serious Jewish-born artists who feared being pigeonholed, are becoming more commonplace thanks in part to the work of a small cohort of Jewish artists such as Kahn, a New York painter and sculptor.

In addition, several Jewish artists like Kahn are designing new takes on Jewish ritual objects, such as prayer shawls and kiddush cups, that once were relegated to mass-produced Judaica.

"I feel lucky that I grew up studying Jewish texts as a child and also grew up in the art community," says Kahn. "It's become a very important thing for me to get people to make their own objects and be empowered to really create -- having both the artistic and the Jewish content."

Avoda, inspired by Kahn's work, began offering traveling Jewish arts workshops three years ago in which Jewish college students learn the purpose and meaning of Jewish ceremonial objects, then make their own versions of traditional ritual objects.

"I think many people are not linear thinkers," says Kahn, who jokingly offers that English is his "second language" and visual arts his first.

"If you make your own ceremonial object, it has a very different impact on you than if you buy one," he adds.

Avoda's leaders argue that the arts do not just make Judaism more exciting to Hebrew school kids but can draw in unaffiliated Jews of all ages. Another young group, Mosaic Colony, takes a similar approach.

Founded four years ago, Mosaic runs artist colonies that encourage primarily secular Jewish artists to explore Judaism through their work. The Manhattan group, which has an annual budget of approximately $150,000, also offers arts workshops, particularly filmmaking ones, in which mostly adolescent participants collaborate on projects involving some Jewish research and discussion. One recent workshop created a film about a golem who plays basketball in a modern-day high school.

Mosaic is "a Jewish address for a lot of people who won't walk into a community center or synagogue," says Rabbi Abe Unger, president of Mosaic's board.

Kahn, Avoda's artistic director, also teaches a new arts bet midrash class through the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El. Offered for the first time this year, the class is collectively reading Jewish texts on the theme of "creation" and then sharing art that emerges from such discussions.

At a recent session, students brought in new projects that they said had been influenced by class discussions. One student, Rochelle Spergel, showed an abstract gold and brown-hued work in progress that is exploring the emotions and sense of longing surrounding "barrenness," an issue that comes up frequently in the Bible.

"I've taken a lot of text study classes before where you're looking at texts and saying this is what the rabbis say or Rashi says, but never where you discuss what images or feelings are created that you could discuss artistically," Spergel says.

During class discussions, "I could picture longing, and it was a wonderful experience to find other people who understand these kinds of feelings and visual images you get because in a regular Talmud study class no one's interested in that kind of stuff."

But is the paintbrush always mightier than the pen? Arts in education proponents insist that what they are calling for is more sophisticated than simply dropping the occasional art project into the curriculum.

"There are many art projects people do like gluing pasta on a chanukiah, but that is not the same as when you learn through the arts," says Ofra Backenroth, a doctoral student at the JTS William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education who is overseeing the new arts in education Web site.

Backenroth, a retired dancer, says it is important to "take a skill unique to the art and work through that, so that you're learning while doing the action" and not simply doing a "cookie-cutter" craft project in which "the teacher cuts the shape out and everyone does the same thing."

Arts in Jewish education is not always an easy sell to prospective donors, however.

"When it comes to budgets, art is always the first piece that goes," says Jo Kay, director of HUC's School of Education. "It's gaining more acceptance, but it's still a struggle."

As a congregational school principal for years at Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Kay said she was accustomed to offering regular art workshops, including a popular "dance midrash" one. However, many of her colleagues at other institutions complained to her that they were not so fortunate and had no budgets for art specialists.

Spinner of Avoda, which has a $500,000 annual budget, says fund raising for her work is not easy but that she has been "very blessed" to have early on won grants from two mainstream funders: UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Education Service of North America's Covenant Foundation.

Funding for arts in Jewish education is easier to obtain than funding for Jewish arts in general, Spinner says, and the introduction of new efforts -- like the Joshua Venture, a fellowship program for young Jews working in the arts and social justice, and Bikkurim, an incubator for new Jewish projects -- has also been helpful to the field.

Rabbi Unger of Mosaic Colony says that while many Jewish philanthropists do not see the arts as an important Jewish need, "for those who take the plunge, they get hooked."

Avoda's Kahn says, "My fantasy is that this becomes so a part of the Jewish community that it's not like a condiment but part of the main meal."