Yad be-Yad school

Today I went to a very special school: It's called Yad be-Yad, which means "hand in hand" in both Arabic and Hebrew. They have both Arabic and Jewish students, starting with the same number of each in the first grade. During the first year the class is taught by both an Arabic speaking and a Hebrew speaking teacher, which means the kids are fairly fluent in bith languages after a year. After that, each teacher teaches in his or her native language, so the kids/ students get to practise both.


It has a wonderful atmosphere, and I couldn't tell which kids were Jewish and which were Arabic. They are taught to accept each other's different opinions, even when they don't agree. They do discuss the conflict, and celebrate both the Israeli Independence Day (a very happy day for the Jews) and al-nakba, the catastrophe, as the Arabs call the birthday of the Israeli state. Of course they also face problems from both side of the society, and only children of moderate parents who think it's a good idea go there. But I hope this project will have many more schools with many students around the country, so some of all the prejudices and hate can disapper when kids play together and become friends.

Read more about the project here.

Son of Hamas

I've read "Son of Hamas" ("Søn af Hamas" in Danish) by Mousab Hassan Yousef the past two days. It's easily read, if one doesn't get too full of hearing about his experiences with death and terror and torture and hate. It's a true story, the author is son of Hassan Yousef, one of the founders of Hamas, and therefore he was a crownprince in Hamas. But he got hired by the Israeli intelligence service Shin Bet, and over 10 years he helped preventing terror attacks planned by Hamas. Over time he also converted from Islam to Christianity.

It was a bit weird to read about some of the places I now know in Jerusalem; the bombing of a pizzaria on the corner of King George and Yafo (downtown Jerusalem with the main shopping streets), the bombing at the Hebrew University (I've seen the memory plate there next to Frank Sinatra building), and also I now can place Ramallah and Kinneret. It happened here and not so long time ago.

I highly recommend everybody to read it. It gives another view on the conflict, as seen from both Palestinians and Israelis on the same time, and might give hope that others like Musab want to end the conflict rather than keeping it going.

My first concert with HarEl

Today I played my first concert in Jerusalem with the Israeli wind band HarEl, that A got me in touch with. It was a concert on a school for children aged 6 to 12, where girls and boys are divided to seperate classes and areas - and therefore we played two concerts, first for the girls and then for the boys.

In the hall - I liked the decorations on the walls (not so clear in this picture).

We played a variety of music to show the children the different instruments (Pink Panter on saxophone, Trumpeter's Lullaby, drum-solo in Sing Sing), and hopefully they've been inspired to start playing themselves. Though at home in Greve when I've attended this kind of music-promotion, the children had a chance of trying the instruments afterwards, and we didn't do that today - maybe because there were so many children. I fled the hall during the break, it was way too noisy for me, even with my earplugs; and it was not only the children's sreaming talk, but also my fellow musicians who contributed to the noise.

Once again I was reminded how well we've been brought up in the music school in Greve; to not play in the breaks so our ears can rest from all the sound, to play not only notes but also give them full and nice sound so the music is worth listening to (I even saw some of the kids, who're used to this way-too-high level of noise, stick their fingers in their ears, because the sound was bad), not to sms during the concert - and other small stuff like this.

But the kids were cute, I especially wanted to take one red-haired girl with me home, she was adorable! The girls were mainly in pink and purple colours, the boys in blue and black - and every one of the boys had a kippa on, some also the four set of strings coming out from under their clothes, that their more religious fathers and uncles also wear.

Concert with Goldschmidt, Singh, and Irshed!

Two of my musical "heros", Henrik Goldschmidt on the oboe and Bilal Irshed on the 3oud, were in Jerusalem tonight to play a concert in the Bible Lands Museum, together with their long time partner Singh on accordion (but I don't know so much about him).

It was a fantastic concert! Goldschmidt was, as always, very expressive and beaming with life and musical joy, teasing the audience with breaks and changes in the music so everybody stayed alert on what would happen next, his sound on the oboe as soft and charming as ever.

The seccond piece they played were a combination of an Arabic love song, a Danish psalm, and a Jewish traditional song. It started out very softly, the 3oud enchanting me with its deep, full sound, and the xaphoon (as I think the recorder with clarinet mounthpiece is called) took over with soft, sweet tones, the accordion being a harmonic drone in the back. I was moved.

And the rest of the concert continued with happy, fast Yiddish tunes, Goldschmidt singing about the teacher teaching his students the Hebrew alphabet (and we, the audience, we the students, who had to repeat after the teacher), Danish folksongs played in Arabic style, a bit of taqsiim [solo improvisation] on 3oud (not enough for me!), and other lively pieces.

It all ended too soon, but we had had a great time - and I almost feel sorry for all of you who missed it! For those in Denmark check out Singh&Goldschmidt's turnéliste, if you want to hear them (without Bilal on 3oud), or Bilal Irshed's page on when he plays. I recommend Fatma Zidan Group as much as Middle East Peace Orchestra - Fatma is my former teacher in Arabic singing.

Shabbat dinner

Our roommate made delicious shabbat dinner for us today. Our landlord joined the dinner (landlady in Tel Aviv, and other roommate out with some musician friends so we were just the four of us), and they did "the full thing" for us; reading from the Torah (I assume) and joining in with "Amen" (the only word I understood in all the Hebrew!). Then filled a glass with wine to it spilled over, to symbolise that God makes everything plenty on this table, that it will never miss anything, and everybody drank from it in turns, by age. Breakiing the bread and dipping it in salt, giving to everybody, and then we were ready to start the main dinner.
And of course the men wore yarmulkas (the Jewish scull cap) to be decent. We forgot the singing, our roommate said afterwards, but we'll do that another time.

Next friday the other roommate has invited us for Kabbala shabbat, which is more singing, mysticism kinda shabbat. I hope I can join a bit late, after my oud lesson.

Ahuva Elany

I've been wandering again - this time I dipped into an "Ethnic Art shop" (also on Jaffa Road), where I fell in love with some metal reliefs by artist Ahuva Elany. From her webpage:

"Graduate of the Bezalel Art Academy's Welding Department (1998) and the Reshet Amal School of Jewelry Manufacturing (2001).

The items are made from thick sheets of copper. The copper is cut by means of a very thin saw that allows for precise and delicate slicing of the sheets. The colors are the natural shades of copper, varying in degree due to special heating and cooling techniques."

Also these pieces of art are probably out of reach for my budget, but I can still enjoy them on exhibition! This one was in the shop - and much more impressive than the picture shows, with all the colours playing on the surface of the metal:

Mobile Seven Species:
These grains and fruits were specially promised to the israelites in the
event of their allagiance to the covenant of god. (from the webpage.)

Detail of same motif as in the above.

Ben Avram

I've been wandering about in Jerusalem to get lost and find my way back, to get to know the city - and on Jaffa Road I stopped at a framing gallery, where I fell in love with some pictures by this artist. His name is Ben Avram, and according to wikipedia (which is more detailed than his own homepage):

"Edward Ben Avram (born 1941) is an artist who was born in Bombay, India and immigrated to Israel as a teenager. He graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in 1965 and continues to make his home in Jerusalem.

Most of Ben Avram’s oil paintings and watercolors portray Israeli cities, religious festivals, and Bible stories. He paints in creamy sensual tones incorporating symbols such as doves, a menorah, and Shabbat candles."

I love the bright colours he uses, and I spend some time studying his techniques (not brush but spatula). As A later pointed out, his colours reminds of Esben Hanefeldts (e.g. this). The dealer asked how many I wanted, and already started to descibe how he would roll the painting so I could bring them home to Denmark - but we still have some time here, and still need to find the money for it. =)

Just another picture to show his style.

First orchestra

A. had a singing lesson at his Ulpan (Hebrew language course) with a teacher from the Jerusalem Music Centre. And as the good husband he is, he asked the teacher for an amateur orchestra for his wife. (Hihi, I'm still getting used to our new titles.) And so I went to look for this orchestra and their weekly rehersal yesterday's evening. I had an idea of where the Music Centre was placed, so I walked in what I thought would be the straightest way. But Jerusalem is very hilly, and it turned out the road I had to cross to where some 20 metres down - so I had to go back and start over.

But I found it! And enjoyed 2½ hours of music with this Israeli wind band called HarEl (which should mean God's Mountain). It has some 35 members, some years older than "my" orchestra back in Denmark. But some of the music was the same, even the same arrangements of Disney's Aladdin, and Leroy Andrson's Trumpeter's Lullaby (we also played The Syncopated Clock; I was happy!). And the conductor's great-nephew plays in the orchestra; family business as usual. ;) They even asked me to join them for a school concert on friday, so I must have done a good job.

It was nice to play again, and music is a universal language. I didn't understand much of the instruction, cus all was in Hebrew, though my staff-mate was helpfull with traslating - but all the musical expressions (mainly Italian) were the same. And I learned the Hebrew word for trompets: khatatot.