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“Magnificat” – Music in the heart of Jerusalem
The complex and unresolved political situation in the holy city of Jerusalem is a cause of great social instability affecting primarily young people who are easily influenced to become involved in organized crime. Unfortunately, this usually involves the consumption and trafficking of drugs.
music lessons in the Magnificat
For many young people, there just seems to be no viable alternative. Opportunities for public education are few and there are no places to gather, to say nothing of employment opportunities. Many find themselves living in a state of high neglect and poverty. However, notwithstanding these negative factors, the close physical proximity of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, in this ancient area of the city, can be seen as an opportunity for dialogue, exchange, and acquiring knowledge of the other.
The Project
Music is the Art that unites, brings together, overcomes differences, and challenges standard ways of thinking, even those most common in the Holy Land: those that pit Arab against Jew. The Magnificat Institute of Jerusalem was founded in 1995, thanks to the work of musician and composer, Fr. Armando Pierucci. Currently, the Institute counts among its ranks 200 Muslim, Christian, and Jewish students studying various disciplines. The musical activities outside of school provide great opportunities and hope for the children of the Old City, and for their families.
youth choir
The main objective of the project Music and Life in Jerusalem is to sustain the activities of the Magnificat Institute whose primary goal is to foster encounter, dialogue, peaceful coexistence, and human and social development amongst people of diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. Learning music provides a very worthwhile alternative to the abandonment and organized street crime that has rapidly spread throughout the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Magnificat Institute has as its goal the promoting of knowledge about music with particular attention to the cultural heritage of various local communities. The target goals at the heart of the Institute are as follows:
- Prepare teachers capable of teaching and transmitting love for music in schools;
- Singing and playing in shrines and parishes of the Holy Land, in particular the Holy Sepulcher;
- Creating opportunities, both choral and instrumental, to break down the cultural, religious and linguistic barriers and foment peaceful and friendly relationships.
“I trust that the harmony of music, which knows no social and religious barriers, is a constant invitation all people of good will to seek together the universal language of love that makes them capable of building a world of justice and solidarity, of hope and peace.” Pope Benedict XVI
