Congratulations to the Class of 2012!

The Scottish Choir

Two weekends ago, was full of fun events! On Thursday, my choir had a joint concert with a visiting choir from Scotland. The Scottish choir is a political choir, so they sing all songs about justice, freedom and peace. The whole idea is that they sing these songs during marches, parades and other demonstrations instead of just chanting. One man explained to me that when you walk down the street in a large crowd, chanting, passersby feel attacked and defensive. However, if you walk down the street in a large group of people singing and possibly dancing, passersby get excited and want to join in. At the very least, they are interested in what you're singing about. I love it! I reminded once again of, Emma Goldman's words, "If there won't be dancing at the revolution, I'm not coming". The Scottish therefore sang about 8 peace and freedom themed songs. Some were songs they sing regularly in marches in Scotland, others were specially designed for their visit to Israel/Palestine.

Zaridash Choir: I'm second from the left.

My choir sang 8 songs that we have been preparing for the past few months. The best hit was Loch Lomond, the classic Scottish song for which we have a beautiful arrangement. (I'm sure you know it, it goes, "ye'll take the high road and I'll take the low road and I'll get to Scotland afore you"... ring a bell?). There are actually two main roads in Bethlehem which run parallel to each other, one high and one low. From the beginning of the year, whenever our group has taken one road or the other we have sung this song so I was ecstatic to get to sing that song for real. 

I felt so blessed to have many of my friends attend my concert. Folks drove up from the south, took the bus from Jerusalem and even bought me a beautiful bouquet of yellow and purple roses! I was so honored that so many of my dear friends here could attend. Thank you all so much for coming! It meant so much to me to have such friendly, familiar faces in the crowd.

School of Hope Class of 2012

Saturday night was graduation for the School of Hope class of 2012. I had the pleasure of attending along with pastors and company from the English speaking congregation in Jerusalem. Students were very dressed up! The girls wore ball gowns and four inch heels beneath their robes. They even had full make-up and hair done. They were even more dressed up than they were for Prom.

The concert hall was packed and it was with great excitement that the students filed in to the hall. They did not use "pomp and circumstance" but instead chose their own, very dramatic, music. There were speeches given by administrators and teachers, songs from the choir, student speeches in Arabic, English and German, a jazz clarinet performance (one of the graduating seniors is an awesome clarinet musician!) and a dabke performance. Families cheered with enthusiasm as their student received his or her diploma and there was no hope of quieting the families down.

It was great to have the opportunity to be part of my students graduation and the community's celebration. I am honored to have been included in these communities here.