E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Amir, Dorit: The Role Of Music Therapy In Establishing Cultural Identity ...
Minister Rabin, Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres and thousands of
others joined her in singing. It was a moment of unity, hope and awe. A few
minutes after singing the song, Rabin was murdered, and in his pocket was the
text for “Song for Peace,” stained with his blood. Since then, this song has
been sung endless times and has now emerged as a symbol of this tragedy. It
symbolizes mourning for the man who led the country towards peace, and at
the same time represents the mission that must be continued: keeping up the
peace process in order to ensure a better future. The song has become both
the symbol of the tear in our society and the symbol for hope.
3. What is the role of music therapy in representing, bringing out and
dealing with such issues?
The Diaspora, the holocaust, the immigration to Israel in all of its meanings,
the pain of belonging to the North Africa ethnic group in the modern Israeli
society, being a war widow and loosing a family member in wars and
terrorist attacks - all of these have been central elements in my clients' and
students’ life stories and in the structure of their psyche.
There are students and clients who tend to preserve their tradition.
Their parents’ traditions become a source of comfort, pride and confidence.
For example, in times of discomfort, pressure or personal crisis, the natural
thing for my students or clients who are new immigrants from the former
Soviet Union is to go back to their native language - Russian, and to sing
Russian songs from their childhood.
There are others, who have rejected their tradition, and will not
speak Russian or sing Russian songs because they don't want to emphasizes a
feeling of being strange, foreigner and even ashamed. They want to erase
any sign of their past in order to become "assimilated" into being an Israeli.
Examples of that are students who present themselves musically only with
music that they identify with an Israeli identity, or songs in English that can
be identified with liberation and being a cosmopolitan, a worldly citizen.
Here is an example. Ana is a 22-year-old MT student who immigrated to Israel
from Russia 5 years before enrolling in the program. Her Hebrew is quite good,
and she has almost no foreign accent at all. She is a very talented classical
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