Workshops
Workshops are a core element in the A.M.I. week-long interactive program that also includes daily concerts, master classes, a Shabbaton, a finale concert and panel discussion event, and a community-wide art contest.
While the week of programming is comprehensive and targets all strata of the community, the workshops, held each day in a different school, focus on junior and senior high school students. A.M.I. meets with the students three times during the course of the day:
- Assembly introducing A.M.I. and the workshops, where students select the workshop of their choice;
- The workshops themselves - 1.5 hours;
- A school-wide concert, during which
- students from the musical workshops perform what they have prepared
- a video backdrop is screened while the band plays, including thought-provoking photomontages of the students walking through various sites in Israel, as well as images of students' own visual art created during the workshops
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A New Song is Born!  Watch Video of a Workshop Read Workshop Description |
Musical Harmony- Friendship and Peace or "Ahava, v-Achva, Shalom, v-Re'ut"  Watch Video of a Workshop Read Workshop Description |
A.M.I. Drum Workshop 
Watch Video of a Workshop Read Workshop Description |
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A Song- "Israel - The Center of the World"  Watch Video of a Workshop Read Workshop Description |
Dawn in the Jerusalem Forest  Watch Video of a Workshop Read Workshop Description |
Kosmic Art 
Watch Video of a Workshop Read Workshop Description | ||
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Like One Person With One Heart 
Read Workshop Description and See Drawings |
Piyyut Workshop 
Read Workshop Description |
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Photography: Israel 360: The Other Sides
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A New Song is Born!
In this workshop, participants will engage in an exciting and enjoyable process through which they will actually compose a new song together. Anyone can participate in this workshop, regardless of their musical abilities or experience.
The progression is as follows:
- The facilitator presents a Jewish or Israel-related topic which may be related to a story, an upcoming holiday, or a current issue. Sources are examined and discussed regarding the topic.
- The participants choose words that express their feelings on the topic and their reactions to the sources.
- The facilitator plays a chord, and the participants guide him in putting words on the board
- The facilitator asks for the next tone or chord...
Steps c and d repeat until... through an amazing process... a new song is born!
MATERIALS:
Participants who do play musical instruments are encouraged to bring them, as an attempt will be made to integrate an instrumental component into this new music.
* Participants will perform the song in the afternoon concert.
Watch Video of a Workshop
Musical Harmony-
Friendship and Peace
OR:
"Ahava, v-Achva, Shalom, v-Re'ut"
The Torah teaches us that "love, brotherhood, and friendship," are the keys to achieving peace in our world. Peace can come about as a result of our ability to create harmony among ourselves. With the use of the powerful tool of music, this workshop will illustrate one of the ways to work towards that important goal. Teaching a new song, learning to work together and hoping to create musical harmony will set the tone for this group's Israel educational experience.
We will use the music and lyrics of Reva L'sheva's popular song, "Shalom v-Re'ut" as the vehicle by which we hope to achieve our goal of learning together.
This workshop is designed for students who already have shown some ability to play a musical instrument and can read simple chord charts.
*The student group will perform the song in the afternoon concert.
MATERIALS:
CD player
music stand for each student
Watch Video of a Workshop
A.M.I. Drum Workshop
The drum workshop will introduce participants to some of the most popular rhythms in Israel today. Israel is a nation which has gathered its exiles from all over the world. As a result, the rhythms of Israel represent many countries and cultures, from the Middle East to Africa to Eastern Europe. We will teach participants a few of the prevalent contemporary rhythmic styles in Israel and learn to play them on the darbuka, a Middle Eastern hand drum. We will discuss the origins of each rhythm and examine how different styles have influenced each other and created new hybrid styles in today's Israeli music.
The workshop will be led in the popular "drum circle" format availing each student the chance to participate "hands-on." Part of the focus will be to learn what it means to play together, that is, to hold one's own part while listening to the parts of everyone else in the circle, in order to create one unified whole. In fact, the experience itself might serve as a fruitful metaphor for what it means to "groove in unity," both as a local community and as a people. Our goal will be to leave the workshop with some new rhythms in our repertoire, to generate some interesting discussion and of course, to experience a taste of Israel through rhythm.
MATERIALS:
Disc player
Speakers
* Participants will demonstrate the drum circle in the afternoon concert.
Watch Video of a Workshop
A Song- "Israel - The Center of the World"
The Talmud teaches us that "Am Yisrael, God and the Torah are all one." Indeed all three entities are physically and spiritually intertwined. What brings us all together to the center is our homeland, Eretz Yisrael.
This workshop uses the Magen David - the Jewish star - as a device to help students conjure up lyrics on the topic of Israel. The facilitator draws the star on the board, labeling three of the points: Israel, Torah, and G-d, and the three others: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Participants begin to associate as words are scrawled on the board.
The facilitator begins to walk among the students, quietly strumming a melody, as participants begin to compose in a unique collaborative process.
In the process of writing together, singing together and discussing each others' deeper message in the lyrics which we have chosen, we will be able to interpret and better understand our different views towards Israel and its center, the city of Jerusalem.
MATERIALS
WHITEBOARD
MARKERS
open mind
heart
a love of singing
* Participants will perform the song in the afternoon concert.
Watch Video of a Workshop
Dawn in the Jerusalem Forest -
Imagine sitting in the heart of a Mediterranean forest, in the foothills of Jerusalem. What would you hear? Notice the sounds, and rhythms, and let them resonate in your being. You begin to hear the melodies of the plants and creatures around you; the forest comes alive, and through you, the music rises, towards the heavens.
In this workshop, the facilitator arrives with dozens of creative percussion instruments, and distributes them to participants. As a first step he sets the tone by focusing on the magical hour of dawn in the Jerusalem forest. Dawn, participants learn, is the time for anticipation and arousal of the spiritual experience. Students are then introduced to King David, who would arise before the sun, as in the Psalmist's words: "Awake, O my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will wake the dawn."
The facilitator then proceeds to work both vocally and percussively to recreate an atmosphere as if you're sitting in the heart of the forest, in the heart of Israel.
MATERIALS:
Percussion instruments (provided by facilitator)
Watch Video of a Workshop
Photography: Israel 360: The Other Sides
Most of the world gets its information about global events through images fed to them by the mass media: television news, radio, print and internet. Each of these has a specific agenda, whether or not immediately apparent to the public.
This workshop offers new visual and conceptual views of Israel. Utilizing 360 panoramic photography, still photography, audio and digital video, we will 'visit' familiar and new sites from new angles, sharing views of Israel that most people have not been exposed to through organized tours in Israel. For example, some of the video clips that will be shown are from a film project entitled, "The Eight Days," a collection of short films of Chanukah candle lightings in one year (2000), each day in a different community in Israel representing various origins and cultural backgrounds. The films reveal Israel's diversity and wealth of cultural and human treasure. Other examples include vistas of natural and urban areas, holy sites, religious and secular gatherings.
Participants will be asked to record their thoughts, emotions and reactions to the media presented, followed by a discussion of their responses.
Participants will next be called on to contribute their creative energies as we place their images into the projected scenes and create a skit about what it's like to be in that place in Israel's history.
* Excerpts will be displayed in the video component of the afternoon concert.
MATERIALS
MULTI MEDIA PROJECTOR (to be connected to laptop computer)
SCREEN
CONNECTION TO A SOUND SYSTEM OR AMPLIFIER
PAPER and PENCILS, PENS, CRAYONS
 Experience a spherical 360 panoramic photograph of Kever Ari at night |
 Experience a cylindrical 360 panoramic photograph of Mount Hermon |
Kosmic Art
The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters. According to the Sefer Yetzira, one of the most ancient texts of the Kabbalah, the letters are divided into three groups:
- 3 Mother, primary letters
- 7 Double letters
- 12 Simple letters
The facilitator will take participants on their first steps into the world of gematria (numerology) as introduced above i.e. how the Hebrew letters are also numbers and how this concept relates to geometry. He will then choose a relevant theme as a springboard for the creative part of the workshop. For example, he might present the elements fire and water, relate them to colors, present their gematria, and discuss other aspects and associations together with the class.
Students will then be led in the creating of geometric art that is simple, educational and fun, based on the material taught.
* Artwork will be screened during the afternoon concert.
Watch Video of a Workshop
Like One Person With One Heart
The Israelites came to Har Sinai with unity - like one person with one heart. In this workshop we will do artwork where everyone contributes to everyone else's picture. Each participant will start a drawing and after a short time will pass his/her drawing the next person, and so on, until every drawing is completed by everyone.
Piyyut Workshop
A piyyut, or a liturgical poem, is a sacred poetic form created in 4th century Israel, that later spread throughout the Diaspora to Arabic-speaking countries, Sepharad and Ashkenaz. The piyyut was sung mainly during Sabbath prayers and on holidays. While the texts borrow heavily from and sustain a dialogue with the Bible (the written Torah) and Mishnah (the Oral Torah), their innovations also worked in reverse, to enrich the Hebrew language. The content of piyyutim (pl.) is quite varied and includes poetic expressions regarding the soul, the Sabbath, redemption, Kabbalistic ideas, and many other topics.
