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Music bridges nations
The Israeli performers have visited several area schools.
LIBERTY — Students at Liberty High School and a group of young adults from Israel have bridged the miles between countries using song and dance as their pavement.
The Israeli performing group “Kolot Ort” — Kolot meaning voices and Ort being the high school they attended — joined the school’s show choir for an exchange of performances Thursday.
The group also performed Thursday evening at the DeYor Performing Arts Center in Youngstown.
The nine performers in Kolot Ort, ranging from age 19 to 22, took the stage at the high school and sang the classic Beatles tune “Let It Be” before performing a dance number in Hebrew.
Liberty students performed several dance numbers for their Israeli visitors.
Principal John Young said he hopes students see how music reaches everyone, everywhere and realize — by seeing the traveling young performers — how far music can take the talented and driven.
“The purpose is to see the musical exchange between the group from Israel and our show choir,” he said. “We are looking at where the music has taken them and we just really want to have that cultural exchange.”
Bonnie Deutsch Burdman, director of community relations and government affairs with the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, said a good cultural exchange is what organizers had in mind.
Burdman said the group is visiting from Akko, Israel, through a program called “Partnership 2000” that connects 500 cities in the United States with 40 regions in Israel.
“Sometimes people are so insulated you forget what is outside of your own townships, state or even country,” she said. “This is an opportunity to meet other people, especially for those who don’t know any Israelis. What you find is that they are just like us, with many of the same shows, music and foods.”
The group spent eight days in the area, but it has not been all work and no play. The performers have visited schools in Boardman and Austintown, visited the Southern Park Mall, eaten at Handel’s Ice Cream and shopped at Wal-Mart, which is not in Israel.
Barak Ben David, 22, performs with the Israeli group and said he is happy to help teach American students a little something about life in Israel. He said the best thing about the visit has been the kids.
“It’s been nice seeing the kids and giving them a different perspective of Israel. A lot of them thought that Israel was more of a desert with camels and things, but we want them to see we are very much like them,” he said. “We hope they see Israel as a great place to live just like the U.S.A.”
jgoodwin@vindy.com