We set out early Monday morning for Jerusalem, enroute to Tel Aviv to get our entry visa at the Jordanian embassy, then to connect with two Israeli choir directors David had met at the World Symposium on Choral Music in Korea this past August. Many frustrations in the first part of the day, including a very slow time getting the rental car, put us behind the rest of the day. We also got shaken down for twice the money we should have paid for the visa, and it took longer than it should have to get it, so we unfortunately couldn't do the lunch with one of the directors. We just ended up using the time to stroll around and eat some pita and fruit we packed, next to this sculpture:
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| Sculpture of a scholar reading scripture in Tel Aviv. |
After we got the visa, we drove on to the village of Bet Yitzahk north of Tel Aviv (near Netanya on the coast.) The evening was as wonderful and rewarding as the morning/afternoon had been frustrating and disappointing. Naomi Faran founded the Moran choir in this small village in the 1980's, and the group has become one of the premier choral organizations in Israel (with four ensembles) and has performed throughout the world. David did his workshop with them, and they were very receptive and open; the work he did with them was largely reinforcing things they already were doing, and his work with their music was fine-tuning. The singers all have private training and musical background, and the environment they live in is stable and thriving.
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| David leading a choral clinic with the Moran Choir |
Naomi is a highly skilled and impassioned conductor who has worked to have collaborations with Palestinian choirs in the past; the current climate has made that impossible, but she hopes for peace, and publicly advocates for a two-state solution and religious tolerance among the three Abrahamic faiths. She was a most gracious host, taking us out to dinner with her daughter and husband, then put us up overnight in their home, took us to breakfast with some of her friends (all of whom live on nearby kibbutzes), and brought us to the coast for a walk and swim (for David).
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| breakfast with Naomi Faran and one of the breakfast club "Parliament of Men" |
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| Kathy and Naomi on the Mediterranean coast |
This was our only contact with a Jewish Israeli choral program on our trip. It is clear that the desires of this group and the Palestinian groups we met with are the same--peaceful co-existence. It is also a tale of Two Cities (or, more accurately, two countries) who have completely different perspectives on the issue, and are in completely different positions of power. Each side has a majority that want peace, with extreme minorities that keep them apart. Besides that, however, most of the people on either side have no real conception of what the other thinks and feels (and why they think and feel that way). The longer the two sides are separate, the less they see each other as human beings. They only see the other who is different from them. (The same holds true anywhere in the world, where our tendency is to line up on opposite sides and assume what others think and feel, rather than doing the hard work of seeking truth and understanding.)
We've seen musicians and artists on each side working to bridge the gap, and there is evidence that the medical communities cooperate, particularly in emergencies. These activities can be a helpful start, but what is needed is real dialogue between the peoples on individual levels--so that they can see the other as a fellow human being, not an abstraction. It's the changing of hearts and minds through culture AND dialogue that may help the situation. Micah Hendler with the YMCA Youth Chorus is taking this tack, and the individuals in his chorus are changing and opening their minds. The great challenge to this change is the toxic atmosphere that has developed, where extremists (on both sides) are given free rein to speak and act out on their violent approach.
The hopeful thing we see is that there are voices on each side that want peace together. We believe the work that the Diyar Consortium is doing--raising up culture and education to offer hope and opportunity--can help this process. We are grateful to have been a part of their work, and hope that the connections we have made and are sharing with Diyar can be of help
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