Patriotic Art

It was her school that inspired second grader Ettie Laber’s creativity.

After reading the novel The Great Potato Plan—a tale of one Jewish family’s escape from war-torn Poland in the early 1940’s and their arrival to America, Ettie felt a wellspring of pride for her country of birth and for her school and desired to express her feelings in creating a duplicate of the “Stars and Stripes.” Collaborating closely with her father, the resulting piece of art was an awe-inspiring 5-foot-wide painting of the American flag.  Ettie’s teacher, Mrs. Michla Roth, was only too proud to display the flag in their classroom.  Like Ettie, her classmates share her pride in living in the United States of America, where Jewish children are able to go to Jewish schools like LEC and do Mitzvos openly and with pride.