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Analysis: ArabAnd Jewish Artists And Musicians In Jerusalem Are Using Music And Theater To Grow Closer To Each Other
All Things Considered: December 21, 2004
Arts Conference Attempts to Bridge Mideast Differences
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
A story now about finding new ways to communicate in a hostile situation. In the Middle East, Arab and Jewish artists and musicians are using music and theater to grow closer to each other. NPR's Linda Gradstein went to their recent conference in Jerusalem, and she has this report.
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LINDA GRADSTEIN reporting:
About a dozen teen-agers sit in a circle, concentrating hard on getting the rhythm right as they accompany Zuwab Hamoud(ph) who plays the classical Arab instrument, the oud.
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GRADSTEIN: Afterwards, Hamoud plays a popular Arab song as several of the Palestinians sing along and the Israelis listen intently.
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Unidentified Teen-agers: (Singing in unison in Arabic)
GRADSTEIN: These teen-agers are part of an Arab-Jewish dialogue group that has been meeting weekly for several months. This is the first time they have played music together. Fourteen-year-old Helen Wexler(ph), one of the Israeli participants, says music can do things that talking can't.
HELEN WEXLER (Israeli): It's an alternative way of expressing yourself, because it's difficult. We can't just sit and have a conversation without a translator, at least not a deep conversation, because it's hard to communicate, because I don't speak any Arabic, and they don't speak fluent Hebrew. I mean, they do know some things. So we have different ways of communicating through music and through body language.
GRADSTEIN: Palestinian participant Ahmed Tofiq Dahl(ph), from the East Jerusalem district of Issawiya, says he's willing to try anything that can change the current situation.
AHMED TOFIQ DAHL (Palestinian): (Through Translator) Our situation is difficult, and we want the problems to end. We have to make peace between the Arabs and the Jews.
GRADSTEIN: The workshop is run jointly by Israeli Arab Zuwab Hamoud, the oud player, and Israeli Jewish music teacher Tamara Hertzberg(ph). Hertzberg says drumming rhythms together isn't easy, but develops important skills for Arabs and Jews.
Ms. TAMARA HERTZBERG (Jewish Music Teacher): To keep the form and to listen to your neighbor and to be the same tempo and the same dynamic, it's something that develops listening.
GRADSTEIN: Hamoud says music can break down barriers in a way different from any other medium.
Mr. ZUWAB HAMOUD (Israeli Arab): You strip everything that you--the things that you came from at home. Like, I think you strip the whole things that you have here outside of this frame when you play music with different people. I think ...(unintelligible) you play music, so you play the human being of you.
GRADSTEIN: Hamoud and Hertzberg were among the dozens of Arab and Jewish artists who gathered for a two-day conference in Jerusalem recently called Talking Arts. Tamar Milstein(ph), one of the organizers, said Jerusalem was chosen because Arabs and Jews in the city have almost no contact with each other. Milstein, a theater director, says having Arabs and Jews portray each other on stage is a way of shattering stereotypes.
Ms. TAMAR MILSTEIN (Organizer, Talking Arts): Most of the Israelis doesn't even know what's going on on the other side. And when they play on stage, it's different, because most of them wants to play the other side, because it's interesting, and it's funny, and it's not frightening.
GRADSTEIN: Music teacher Hertzberg says breaking down barriers between Arabs and Jews is a slow, difficult process.
Ms. HERTZBERG: It's for the future. What we do here, it's not for now. It's not for television. It's for the future.
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GRADSTEIN: The final event at the conference was a performance by a joint Arab-Jewish band called Joseph in One(ph) for a standing-room-only audience.
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GRADSTEIN: Linda Gradstein, NPR News.
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ROBERT SIEGEL (Host): You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.
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