JCD (formerly Jewish Child's Day) has decided to support Peace Child Israel.
Here's why, according to them.*
Helping Young People Through the Arts
STUART BRODKIN
GOVERNMENT funding for the arts and music has never been a high priority.
Firstly, it is not perceived as a vote-winner and secondly, and more
importantly, hospitals, homes, social and welfare services and even the road
network is higher on the 'to do' list.
In Israel, the position is slightly different with security and defence at the
very summit of the government's priorities -- and rightly so. But that makes the
prospects for arts funding even bleaker.
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"One of the strict criteria for receiving
funding from JCD is that we have to make a personal on-site visit...
"Among the most impressive is Peace Child Israel. I think the name very much
speaks for itself and we have been so taken with them that we have funded them
to the tune of £25,000 since 2000."
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Try going cap-in-hand to the local council or even central government and ask
them to fund the local children's theatre or youth orchestra for a year or two
when most state and local funding has been allocated to defence. But art and
music can make a huge difference to the lives of ordinary people and nowhere is
this best illustrated than in Israel, where Jews and Arabs live cheek-by-jowl.
There the arts can bring people together in a way that nothing else -- save,
perhaps sport -- can do. One man who if fully aware of the power of the arts --
and the power of good it can do -- is Daniel Burger, executive director of JCD,
formerly Jewish Child's Day.
The charity raises money to pass on to children's agencies in the United
Kingdom, Israel and Eastern Europe, funding specific projects -- and in recent
years, more and more money has gone to the arts and music. "We recognise that
the projects we fund come in all shapes and sizes and we also understand that
providing vitally needed medical equipment such as incubators for premature
babies registers high on the emotional scale.
But we are also aware of the need to build bridges between communities and
that's where I feel projects like theatre, dance and music can play a vital
role," says Burger, himself a young patron of Britain's National Theatre.
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"I believe they are making
a real and discernible difference to the way Jews and Arabs feel about each
other." |
"However, in addition to bringing communities closer many of these volunteer
schemes have a wonderful therapeutic and calming effect on the many hundreds of
underprivileged children we are trying to help make a better life for
themselves. "One of the strict criteria for receiving funding from JCD is that
we have to make a personal on-site visit so, in this respect, I have been lucky
enough to see a number of these projects in action.
"Among the most impressive is Peace Child Israel. I think the name very much
speaks for itself and we have been so taken with them that we have funded them
to the tune of £25,000 since 2000."
Peace Child Israel was founded in 1988 by David Gordon and Yael Drouyannoff with
the stated aim of "teaching co-existence using theatre and arts". Burger adds:
"The group tries to highlight the need for tolerance and mutual respect among
Jewish and Arab teenagers.
"They produce original drama, taking these productions around the country, which
are performed in Arabic and Hebrew for both public and student audiences and I
was amazed at how professional these productions were whenever I have seen them.
"But, more importantly. I believe they are making a real and discernible
difference to the way Jews and Arabs feel about each other."
....
To contact JCD call 020 8446 8804, email
info@jcd.uk.com or visit the website at
http://www.jcd.uk.com
See our list of donors for 2004-2008
*
