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Dear Friend, The summertime is always a mix of emotions for all Jewish people. On one hand it is a time of "chofesh," beautiful weather, weddings, time with friends and growth, while on the other hand, each year we are reminded again of the destruction of our Holy Temple, the divisions amongst us and the constant arguments that we seem to fall into. So how can we finally attempt to put and end to this part of our history? What can we do to try to fix our situation? Clearly, we, as a nation, have been taught to take our past and use it as a growing tool to look towards the future. After all, why would I want to fast on Tisha B'av simply because of an event that took place 200 years ago? There must be some other elements involved to make this period in our lives so intense year in and year out. Clearly it does not take too much insight to realize that the baseless hatred that is noted as the cause for the destruction of the "Bayit Sheni" sadly enough, continues to be prevalent in our lives to this day. However, perhaps a greater purpose for this intensity is to push us to an awareness of wanting to yearn for the rebuilding of our Temple, to desire a coming together of our brothers and sisters, to truly want the peace that we have all been waiting for. While I was living in Los Angles I had the honor to study daily for three years with Rabbi Yaakov Safranowitz, a man who had moved to LA from Israel in 1986. One day, after an all night session in the studio I came knocking at his door for our regular 6:30 am study session. He looked at me and promptly said., "You are crazy! Go home!" I questioned him. "But why? I am here aren't I?" He asked me in return, "Tell me something , you hippies, did you really do something?" "I believe so," I responded." I believe we truly tried to bring more love into the world." " Love, shmove (sic)" he replied, "if it was such a good thing why did it not stick and remain strong to this day?" I immediately replied, "I guess we forgot to invite God to the party." So today I am thinking , does God really want to come to our party if we are not willing to invite in all of his children? Do we really need to be so judgmental? Do I always have to be right. Because if I am always right, then you must be wrong. Why can't we yearn for that evasive peace so deeply that our yearning allows us to accept our differences and still, have a great desire to be together. Why can't we emulate the Houses of Hillel and Shammai who , although they disagreed on numerous issues of Jewish law, including ones that relate to marriage and family commitment, they were still honored to marry off their children one to another? May this summer be a time of healing for us all, a time to reflect back and look ahead , to be ready to put my ego aside in order to give you the respect that you deserve. With blessings for a beautiful summer.

Shalom, Yehudah Katz on behalf of the A.M.I. Team

Welcome to the new A.M.I. website! Meet the new A.M.I. team, learn about our programs in Israel and abroad and find out about our latest programs.

If you would like to introduce the Neshima program in your school or youth program we'll be happy to hear from you.

On March 17 Yehudah Katz presented a Beit Midrash session at Jewish Agency's Partnership 2000 Jewish Renewal conference to Jewish educators, lay-leaders and federation representatives entitled "The Power of Music". Through musical involvent and interpretation the participants explored the integral power of melody as a communicating tool, which can bridge gaps between people.

As a result of the session Yehudah helped indetifying music as a vehicle by which one can step out of their day to day situation, rise above and get a better view about who they are as individuals and members of the community at large.

May this Pesach be a festival of freedom and unity between the Jewish people, may we stop fighting and start carying for each other in true love and respect!

This is what A.M.I. is all about, enjoy the new song "Ani Yehudi", with the participation of Yehudah Katz.

Remembrance days in the Jewish calendar are they a time to remember or a time to forget? Our history is in many ways based on remembering, but in order to make remembrance more meaningful we need to learn how to let go so that we can look towards the future. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why right after commemorating Yom Zicharon we move right towards celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut.

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What does Shabbat mean to you? Over 40 students from the pre-army program at Telem discussed this topic and what they personally associate it with.

Although the discussion took place on a Monday it didn't hinder the students to sing and dance to beautiful Shabbat songs performed by Yehudah Katz.

On December, 23 50 teachers from Jewish schools in Los Angeles and high schools in Tel Aviv participated in the annual teachers’ training seminar organized by the Los Angeles Jewish Federation, which for the first time included  A.M.I. workshops. The workshops were carried out by Yehudah Katz and Josh Lauffer and were based on the theme “Judaism and Music” – how to use music as a common language in order to bring together Jews from different backgrounds. Music, meditation and composing melodies turned out to be a very pleasant experience for the participants, which will hopefully serve them as an inspiration how to transmit Jewish values to their students through the tool of music.