The On Front Stage project of the Jewish Agency's Partnership 2000 continues to provide hundreds of youth from Beit Shemesh and Yehuda Plains with the opportunity to attend leading Israeli cultural performances.

This week, over 1000 students from the State Religious high schools in the city attended the "Chen Cymbalists and Natan Rubinstein Show", a rousing concert of sounds and rhythm. The show was brought especially to the city for the performance which consisted of four consecutive concerts at the Eshkolot Hapayis building.

  
The concert, which brought together the best percussion musicians in the country, included 40 different instruments - the marimba, vibraphone, gongs, Brazilian instruments, African drums and others - and created a musical celebration which brought together Bach and Africa and Gronich and the world of percussion instruments.

The youth were given the rare opportunity to take an active part in the show, which included a "percussion" dialog with the audience. The show connected the audience to works they were familiar with and others they were less familiar with and the audience was swept up in the musicians' enthusiasm.

  
This year, for the first time, the Amit Nachshon Yeshiva High School joined other participating high schools in the city. "We are glad to expose our students to appropriate cultural and artistic material as part of the "On Front Stage" program. Shows of this type stimulate curiosity and widen horizons in art, music and the consumption of culture. For the youth, the concert was both stimulating and liberating and they showed a high level of interest and creativity. I feel that in addition to the acquisition of knowledge in school, it is important to enrich the cultural experiences of the youth with activity of this type, which is appropriate for youth in general and religious youth in particular." -Rabbi Zvi Koren, Principal of the Amit Nachshon Yeshiva.

For the State Religious high schools, including the First ulpana and yeshiva and main stream, the Gila Ulpana, the Nachshon Yeshiva and the Shaalei Torah Yeshiva, this was the first in a series of five high-quality performances which are part of the cultural portfolio that the On Front Stage project is offering to the youth of the region for the second year running. At the same time, preparations have begun for the annual volunteer program in each of the high schools.