Community & Youth Unit

About the unit

The Academy’s students are involved in several different community projects throughout the country:
 

1. PERAH is a project that involves thousands of students in mentoring activities with children who need help in both scholastic and emotional aspects of their lives.  Students at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance are privileged to take part in this unique project, integrating their professional experience with meaningful and challenging mentoring activity.  The project in Jerusalem brings students to various music centers in the neighborhoods of Katamon, Kiryat Menachem, Pisgat Ze’ev and Jabal Mukaber, where they teach children and young people music theory and to play instruments.  The project’s main goal is to enable weaker populations to participate in activities at the music centers by awarding scholarships.  The purpose is to involve as wide a variety of population sectors as possible in the activities of these centers, whether the pupils are ultra-Orthodox, new immigrants from the FSU and from Ethiopia, and others.

The project in Jabal Mukaber is carried out in cooperation with the Academy’s Department of Oriental Music.  Students in the Department of Music Education come to the elementary schools in the neighborhood and give classes and music lessons.

 As part of the Perah “Periphery” Project, students travel to distant localities in the north and south, and enrich the world of pupils through activities at local music centers. The goal is to help pupils in peripheral areas to succeed, advance and break through the “glass ceiling” they often encounter.

The project is carried out in Ofakim, the Eshkol Regional Council, and communities in Mabo’im in the south and Yokneam in the north.  All of the Academy’s departments are involved in the project and the contribution it makes to the students and local pupils alike is tremendous.  Students who meet with the young pupils become a significant part of their lives and serve as positive role models.
 
The Academy also conducts a Perah project in cooperation with Cellcom Volume in Acco, Kiryat Malachi and Beit Shemesh, which focuses on local youth who play pop music in small bands.  Students and young lecturers from the Academy instruct them and help them focus and become more professional in this sphere.
 
2.  The Academy also runs a musical mentoring program for visually impaired children in cooperation with the Ofek Leyaldenu Association and the Jerusalem Foundation.  As part of the project Academy students teach blind and visually impaired children to play and sing.  In addition, this year saw the introduction of a “peer mentoring” pilot project, through which Academy students help other Academy students who are learning disabled.
 
3. Music and dance classes were introduced in the Hevel Modi’in School and individual classes in instrument playing are being given to pupils at the Ben Shemen Youth Village.