The end of my trip and coming home

I'm sorry that this has taken so long to post. After all of my traveling, I came straight back to school and have been getting settled. This will be the final post concerning my trip in Israel, but keep your eyes peeled for future updates concerning the growth of this project.

While in Jerusalem, I visited a group called Heartbeat Jerusalem, founded by Aaron Shneyer with financial backing from Fulbright and MTV. They bring together Jewish and Palestinian children interested in music for jams, concerts, and (recently) to produce a music video. I attended a showing of some short documentaries (of all things) concerning the work of Heartbeat and a Palestinian Hip-Hop group they are associated with, G-Town, from Shua'fat, a refugee camp in East Jerusalem. This was the first group I experienced that was able to successfully interact with Palestinians living in refugee camps and as such, they were a little more surrounded by politics. That night, a lot of the conversation was devoted to the fact that they had recently decided to stop instituting political discussions amongst the kids because of the discomfort it caused them, although some of them do so anyway without prompting. At the end of the evening, I had an awesome interview with two of the members of G-Town and two of the folks who help run Heartbeat.

That week I also filmed a high-school theater program in Jerusalem for Jews and Arabs. Not exactly music-related, but very interesting and effective nonetheless. After filming the group, I interviewed the founder of the group, Harold, a South African who came to Israel by way of France (really interesting guy). My Jerusalem adventure was completed by making a day trip to the Dead Sea to visit Ilana Mealem, a nomad who sets up camp right on the beach for the winter where her friends come and go for a day-visit, a night sleeping under the stars, or weekend retreats filled with music and awesome rituals with a peudo-Pagan-Jewish flavor. I went to interview her concerning a project she's involved in called Musaic, a musical project bringing together Israeli Jews and Arabs, Palestinians, Jordanians, and Egyptians. While the interview was informative, the real experience was building a fire by the Dead Sea (while it rained heavily), baking hand-made Pita over it (that was cool), and enjoying a meal all together.

After these experiences, I jumped up north for a couple days again to see a concert in Nazareth that Uri, the head of the Music Center in Mizra, invited me to. The performers were all students of either his program or Beit Almusica, an all-Arab music school in Shfar'am. These students were all phenomenal and the evening was completed with a short speech from Maestro Zubin Mehta, the principle conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (formerly of Los Angeles).

From Nazareth, I went farther north to Amirim to visit Yair Dalal, a pioneer in musical peace efforts. Yair, a Jew who was born in Baghdad, is one of Israel's most remarkable musicians, playing both the Oud and the Violin in the traditional Middle-Eastern fashion, forming bands comprised of both Jews and Arabs, and producing multiple albums. He was kind enough to invite me into his home and allow me to film an interview with him as well as a private performance of the peace anthem he made his international debut with, Zemer A'Salaam (time for peace) before I left and headed farther north to my final filming location, Tzfat.

I stayed for a couple days in Israel's mystical capital and on the 2nd day, I headed over to the town of Jish (called Gush Halav by the Jews in the area) with my translators, Moshe Tov and Andy. In Jish, I arrived at the home of George Samaan, one of my favorite people I had the pleasure of meeting on this entire trip. George welcomed us all in, served us Arabic coffee (the best) in his courtyard, and pulled out his Oud and Saz (a fretted Middle-Eastern instrument), offering answers to questions I didn't ask, interspersed with songs he just felt like playing and singing for us. This was the first and only interview where I never asked a single question. He gave all of the answers I wanted. Finally, I went into his house and grabbed a Darbouka (my Middle-Eastern instrument of choice) and sat down next to him. My only appearance in the movie was a wonderful one where I had the honor of drumming for one of Israel's musical gems.

After Tzfat, I grabbed a three-hour bus back down to Jerusalem, admiring the newly-blossomed almond trees (in February!) to spend my last Shabbat before I finally came back home.

This project is growing quickly. Please keep your eyes pealed for updates concerning my next steps and how you could help this grow. Now that I'm back at school, I will begin editing the film in less than a week with my good friend Andrew Duff, the owner of the camera I borrowed for the trip. It will hopefully be finished by May or June and ready for screenings and presentations this summer.

Actions speak louder than words

I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while, traveling around the country and finding places to stay has been kind of wild. I have less than two weeks left on my trip and I don't have as much footage as I would like. I've never believed in the "underpromise, overdeliver" work-ethic. Mine has always been, "Set high goals. If you don't reach them, be upset." I still have two weeks that could be filled with some excellent footage and I'll still be able to make a good movie.

Most recently, I had some crazy adventures trying to get to Tel Aviv. I ended up staying in Pardes Hannah and making a 45 minute train ride to Tel Aviv each morning for a couple days. The result was two interviews, both with figures from the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The first was Irit Rub, director of the IPO's Keynote educational program, talking about one of their premier projects, Sheshbesh, and Arab-Jewish ensemble playing traditional Middle Eastern music. We talked about how the project came about, how it evolved, and the philosophy behind the group. They perform a lot at schools around the country as well as international events such as the interfaith ecological conference at Windsor Castle. When performing for children, Irit told me that they don't try to talk to them about coexistence or the fact that there are Arabs and Jews in the ensemble. She believed that you can't just discuss the subject in soundbites. There had to be a process and if they didn't have the time for that process, it would be more beneficial to just play the music for the children.

Afterwords, I interviewed Yossi Arnheim, principal flutist of the orchestra and a member of Sheshbesh. He continued to express the importance of them just playing the music together and how the Jewish musicians (all classically trained) had to step out of the traditional musical world they understood and learn how to play quartertones (notes we don't have in our western scales) on their respective instruments.

While their philosophy didn't entirely coincide with mine, there was one aspect I agreed with: actions speak louder than words. The fact that the group simply comes together without some sort of discussion about their cultures or the conflict surrounding them exemplifies an important strategy of many peace activists in the region: act as if peace is already here. This ideal has been on my mind a lot lately. I'm torn, not because I don't agree with or know how to implement it, but because I'm not sure when it should be employed.

Dialogue is a must for a grass-roots peace (or political for that matter) to become a reality. While I agree that we should behave peacefully, it is important for that uncomfortable conversation to take place: Why are your people afraid of mine? Why are mine afraid of yours? What did we take from each other? What do we owe each other? How can we reconcile so many generations of abuse, terror, fear, and hatred? If we ignore the conversation, no one will ever feel a sense of justice.

I'm in Jerusalem now, staying with some old friends who lived in Boulder for a few years. In this family are two sons my age who were two of my best friends when they were in the states. They're both in the army now, fulfilling their mandatory 3-year service. I've struggled a lot with how I feel about that law, and after seeing my old friends for the weekend and seeing the situation they've been forced into, I've made up my mind on it.

Tomorrow I'm going to walk to the old city. Last time I was in that area, I had a very life-changing event with a Palestinian boy. I'm pretty excited to see what happens this time.

Monkey see, monkey do

Here comes a massive update. This past Sunday, I was supposed to go up to Tzfat to interview Yair Dalal and meet a group of musicians (Arabs and Jews) that he teaches. Due to miscommunications about housing, I wasn't able to go, and when I wanted to go the next day, the weather got really bad (for those who don't know, the rain has been so crazy that it is flooding in the Negev . . . the Negev!). Instead, I went back to the Arts Center and got an opportunity to actually interview the Shani Choir that I filmed before. Though most of them were a bit shy in front of the camera, a few of the older girls in the group were incredibly helpful and offered wonderful insight. The way that group uses music to transcend barriers is really inspiring. One Arabic girl shared, "it feels like there is a wall between Arabs and Jews in Israel . . . we don't have this wall."

I then found out that I would not be able to visit the Arab Jewish Youth Orchestra in Ayanot (near Rishon Leziyyon). All of my housing opportunities fell through. Today I was supposed to go farther north to meet George Samaan, but the weather was once again awful and it wasn't safe to travel to where he lives (flooding and whatnot). Basically, it was a constant barrage of missed opportunities that I'm trying to make up for. Yair I will meet in Jaffa for an interview (but I wont get to see his group), the youth orchestra is our entirely, and I'm going to try to see George when I come back north the second week of February.

Instead, today I got a different opportunity. My whole experience here has been witnessing this important objective, using music to bring together Jews and Arab, but as of yet I had never participated. That changed today. There was no filming today, only experiencing. Through Tally, I was introduced to an all-Arab Waldorf school in Shfaram (pronounced Shef-amr in Arabic). I was greeted by Lana, the teacher of the third grade class, who asked if I would start the class by playing a guitar and singing to the children. I tried teaching them a few folk tunes (Amitai definitely taught a class of 8 and 9-year-old Arabs Janis Joplin's 'Mercedez Benz') but mostly just sang to them as they giggled. They also asked me to give them a demonstration on the Darbouka (some call it Doumbek). For the first time since I was a beginner at the instrument, I felt embarassed to play it, considering my audience happened to all be from the culture that introduced it to the world. They were appreciative nonethelss.

During their recess, a boy came up to me and asked (with Lana's translation) if I would teach him a little piano (they have a piano in the classroom!). So I spent 15 minutes today teaching a 9-year-old boy how to find C and then play a major scale on the piano. The best moment for me today was when I was leaving and I saw him head over to the piano to play a C Major scale at every octave. I felt like I had just taught a man how to fish . . .

After school, I went home with one of the students, Daniel, to have lunch with his family. They were wonderful hosts, overfed me, gave me strong Arabic coffee with cardomom afterwards, and then sent me on my way. Before I left they told me they would gladly host me if I needed to stay in Shfaram, which showed a lot of trust considering they had daughters (it is usually considered inappropriate to house a man if that is the case).

This was my first real experience of Arabic culture. I have never spent a day at one of their schools, eaten lunch at one of their houses, taught piano or sung "over the rainbow" with them. I can't even describe how tranformative it was to be there today. I finally got to have a taste of what the people I'm filming experience every day.

In other good news, next week I will have an opportunity to meet with Yair Dalal and David Broza (he just finished making the rounds playing music at schools around the country with Peter Yarrow). I've also been given the opportunity to come back to Nazareth on February 8th to attend a concert of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (one of the best in the world, conducted originally by Leonard Bernstein) and interview their principal conductor Zubin Mehta (formerly of the Los Angeles Philharmonic). I'm pretty stoked.

Arab Israel Bank, Ein Bustan take 2, and Amir Shlomian

What an adventure the past couple of days have been! I thought the trip was starting off too slowly and now opportunities are popping up out of nowhere. Yesterday, I was invited by Uri Ben David of the Jezreel Valley Arts Center to an opening of a branch of the Arab Israel Bank in an Arab village near Nazareth. This bank donates a large amount of money to the center's Mifne project (read about it here: http://www.musicalvalley.co.il) so the students in the project performed at the opening of this branch. Their was a recorder ensemble, a violin solo by Telemann, and two vocal pieces in Arabic sung by two girls from the Shani Choir. Among the speakers at this event were executives of the bank and the mayor of the village who was kind enough to give me a brief interview. I was graciously given a ride to the event by the Arts Center's International Relations Director, Zohar Dayan, who gave me a few more connections for my project (including a possible connection to Israeli musician and peace activist David Broza, who has collaborated with Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Bono, Sting and others).

This morning, I made my way back to Ein Bustan where I was given permission to film their Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony they have every Thursday, complete with musical accompaniment by their founder, Amir Shlomian. I was also able to film a lot of the children playing outside. Pictures will be up on my facebook soon. After the parents came to pick up their children, I interviewed two of the teachers, Gibi and Ibtisam, as well as one of the parents, with Amir translating.

Tonight, Amir and I went to a cafe where he gave me an amazing hour-long interview covering a wide-variety of topics, including the story of how he founded the school, the role of music in Waldorf education and how they've incorporated it into their school, his own attitude towards peace efforts and even his philosophy concerning what Peace will look like. It was an awesome interview that I hope will turn out well in the editing process.

Sunday I am trying to get out to Tzfat to spend the day with Yair Dalal, then Monday I will get to interview some of the girls from the Shani Choir. Next Thursday I will spend the day with George Samaan (look him up, he's awesome). Other than that, I have more connections to contact and fill up all of that time in between.

I really can't describe how great the project is turning out so far and I'm sure it can only get better. I haven't even made it to Jerusalem yet. I still have almost an entire month left in Israel, and I want to fill up at least 11-16 more hours of film.

Jezreel Valley Multicultural Center for the Arts

Today I made my way to Mizra where I visited the the Jezreel Valley Multicultural Center for the Arts. This is located at a meeting point between Jewish, Arab, and mixed communities, just 20 minutes east of Tivon, and an equally short distance from Nazareth, home to a mostly Christian-Arab population. The music dept. of this arts center is a conservatory for young musicians studying classical, jazz, modern, and even middle eastern music. The student body is about 70% Jewish and 30% Arab, the latter split halfway between Christians and Muslims.

My invitation to visit came from Uri Ben-David, the Director of Music Projects. He was extremely enthusiastic about my project and made sure to introduce me to everyone who could be of some help or a possible interview. He kindly made time to give me a full interview himself. He has been involved in bringing together Arabs and Jews in a musical setting for 10 years now. After we discussed his own philosophy on the peace process and the role of music and other cultural enrichment programs as methods of bringing together the two different peoples, he introduced me to the Shani Choir.

Shani is an all-female choir of 24 Jews and Arabs, aged 12 to 18. They all take voice lessons at the center and perform together around Israel and internationally. Their concerts have taken them to America, Denmark, and even the Vatican where they performed for Pope Benedict XVI. These remarkable young women transcend the cultural barrier so easily and gracefully, it's really inspiring.

After filming the choir for a bit, I visited a few other classes, all instrumental, with the same sort of comfortable atmosphere where the background of the students isn't thought about, only their musicianship. I then interviewed the conductor of the Shani Choir, Pnina Inbar, on her way out after their rehearsal ended.

The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra has now become involved in the multicultural arts center, funding joint projects and even looking at musicians from the school as potential future members of the orchestra. Maestro Zubin Mehta, the principal conductor of the IPO, is similarly interested in Arabs and Jews playing music side-by-side.

At the end of the day I had the pleasure of watching a recital of some of the students who were, to say the least, absolutely amazing. I will definitely be back at this location soon (I was invited to come to a concert tomorrow and film and interview more people).

Ein Bustan

After making my way up north last night (finally), I began working today by going to Ein Bustan, a bi-lingual Waldorf kindergarten for Arab and Jewish children in the area. This school functions in both Hebrew and Arabic, raising the children in an environment where their cultures are accepted side-by-side. The school is split into two classes, one ages 3 and 4, the other 4-6. I began by visiting the younger class, taught by Gibi, a Jewish man, and Amna, an Arab woman. Keeping in the spirit of Waldorf education, they would spontaneously break into songs throughout the day that all of the children knew. The songs mostly related to nature since Tu B'Shvat, the Jewish holiday celebrating trees, is coming up soon. The Waldorf educational philosophy favors music as a form of communication, especially with younger children. The teachers at Ein Bustan lead the children in songs in both Hebrew and Arabic.

Shortly after I arrived, the children sat down to lunch, which they began with a non-religious blessing of the food in both Hebrew and Arabic. Afterwords, they went outside to play together.

I headed over to the older class where the children were much more outgoing and all wanted to speak to me in languages I don't understand. My only way of communicating with them was by smiling and nodding (although at one point, a little girl came and sat down next to me and we started to drum together on a table. I'm not sure what sort of communication was happening there, but she seemed to enjoy it a lot.)

The teachers of this older class, also one Jew and one Arab, weren't very fond of the idea of me filming them at all which really put a bit of an end to my day. I did get an opporunity to speak with the Jewish teachers for a bit (the Arab teachers spoke little to no English). My poor Hebrew and complete inability to speak Arabic has proven to be a much bigger obstacle than I thought, especially with children.

Yael, the Jewish woman who teaches the older class, is studying to get her degree in education. She told me that she's writing her thesis on why Waldorf classes try to only use pentatonic music when they sing together (for those who don't know the pentatonic scale, sing Amazing Grace). The pentatonic scale lacks the 4th and the 7th (F and B in C major or Fa and Ti). She claims that this gives it a much dreamier, less grounded feeling. She said that the scale was also much more pleasant to hear and more comfortable for the children. For those of us who speak music theory, we know that this is because the lack of a 4th and 7th completely eradicates the tritone, also known as the devils interval, and the minor 2nd, the two harshest and most dissonant intervals to the western ear. I wonder what the effect would be to only use this sort of music around a group of children who would otherwise grow up to fear and even hate each other.

I asked if there was a language barrier for the children, similar to the one I was experiencing. They conceded that there was, but the teachers try to overcome it by using both languages in daily conversation. Instead of teaching the children, "this is a fork, this is a table, this is a window," they merely use both words in Hebrew and Arabic to promote a more experientially educational atmosphere. (Big words there Amitai)

Ein Bustan is the only bi-lingual Waldorf school in Israel and, unfortunately, they end when the children move on to 1st grade. They are trying to build a continuing program, otherwise the options are for the children to either go to separate schools, or for the Arabs to go to the Hebrew speaking programs. This sadly diminishes the opporunity for them to grow up experiencing the cultures living right next door.

Tomorrow, I will be visiting a mixed Arab and Jewish choir, a project through the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Uri Ben-David. I will have a greater opportunity to film there.

Arrival

I have arrived in Israel. For the first couple of days, I'm going to get over my jet lag (I woke up at 6am today, which, for any of you who know me, is just not right). I am staying with my great-uncle and aunt, Uzi and Sarah Davidson. Uzi is my grandfathers younger brother.
After I get over the 11-hour plane ride (which I didn't sleep on), I will be heading to Tivon to begin working with the Ein Bustan Arab-Jewish Waldorf Kindergarten and interview their founder, musician and peace activists Amir Shlomian.
First however, I'm having an intense craving for Falafel.