Vision
The Songs – melodies and lyrics learned during childhood accompany the individual throughout life and form a bridge between past, present and future.
We wish to create and implement life and year cycle soundtrack of Piyutim from different Jewish Traditions for the education system chosen together with the Ministry Of Education particularly for elementary and junior high schools.
We believe that song should be an essential part of the school experience in general—and in particular, that the singing of piyyutim (Jewish liturgical poems) from across the diverse Jewish traditions should be organically integrated into the environment of elementary and middle schools in Israel.
Piyyutim offer meaning and connection to the cycle of the year and to life events, and they provide a rich, experiential way to engage with the content of Jewish holidays, reflecting the depth and diversity of Jewish and Israeli culture.
Activity
As a result of the success of the program ‘Bo’u Le’gani’ Piyut in Kindergartens, we wish to take a leap forward and create and implement life and year cycle soundtrack for the education system chosen with the Ministry Of Education particularly for elementary and junior high schools.
We plan to:
- Create an attractive and accessible repertoire that will connection to year and life cycle events and enable learning the content of Jewish holidays in an experiential way
- The repertoire will relate to and be acceptable by as many sections in Israeli society as possible (secular, national-religious, Ashkenazi, Sephardi and more) and will include a variety of Jewish and Israeli traditions.
- Create a high Level musical production that will be widely accepted
- Creating the recordings + work plans for teachers in different curriculums
- To Work together with leading partners in the Education System in order to implement the songs into to the curriculum and everyday life of elementary and junior high schools.
Activity Summary
Over the past year, in collaboration with the Jewish-Israeli Culture curriculum team, we led a dedicated professional development program focused on teaching content through piyyutim (liturgical poems) and songs. This program reached seven educator communities and included approximately 140 teachers.
We aim to broaden the program’s repertoire to support the teaching of all Jewish holidays and festivals in schools through the use of piyyutim.
Our Plans:
- Integrating song as a pedagogical tool in the instruction of Jewish-Israeli Culture, while providing teachers with a rich repertoire of songs and piyyutim from a variety of Jewish traditions—making them accessible to all Israeli children, with an emphasis on the state education system.
- Completing the development of 24 learning units based on piyyutim that correspond to the annual cycle of holidays.
- Publishing and integrating these learning units on a dedicated website, organized by months and