We are delighted with the tremendous response to our fundraising campaign at the last chamber concert in the Humboldt Hall on 8 November 2025! We were able to collect €365 in cash on the evening, and we also received several donations to our account, including a single donation of €200 and two donations of over €100. We now have a total of €835. We want to increase this amount even further!
We will be asking for donations again at our next concert on 13 December 2025. In the meantime, you can always transfer money to our donation account:
Name: Kölner Klassik Ensemble e.V.
IBAN: DE35 3806 0186 4533 4420 19
BIC: GENODED1BRS
Bank: Volksbank Köln Bonn eG
We use the money to support the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Gaza, its students and music teachers. The school's headquarters are in Ramallah, with branches in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Gaza City.
The situation in Gaza is still dire, with the ceasefire constantly being broken and the population still unable to obtain adequate supplies. Winter is coming, and heavy rainfall is causing rubbish and faeces to accumulate in the water and seep into the tents in the refugee camps.
The conservatory in Gaza was hit directly by an artillery shell in October 2023 and severely damaged. Journalist Thaer Abu Ayyash (author of the article below) documented the destruction on video, showing sheet music, cellos and pianos lying in a pile of rubble:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0X9Nc10CINc
Manal Awad, director of the Edward Said Conservatory in Gaza, led the initial efforts to revive the institute – ‘like someone trying to plough a mountain with a sewing needle’. After several exhausting months and under extremely difficult conditions, the team managed to recover some instruments – either by purchasing them from a local company that had survived the bombings or by borrowing them from families. They cleared the building of rubble and made temporary repairs. Some rooms are now usable, and classes have been able to resume there for a few days. This is a great ray of hope and a very important sign for the people there!
But now, a lot of help and, of course, money is needed to make the building safe to use and slowly restore the music school to what it was before the war. As Fuad Khader, music teacher at the Edward Said Conservatory in Gaza, explains: "The conservatory was not just a place of learning. It was a home for artists in Gaza. Every musician in Gaza either grew up there or visited it at some point. When the institute was destroyed, it was a shock to all of us. But instead of breaking us, it strengthened our belief that what we do is more important today than ever before."
The conservatory's Facebook page provides direct insight into the school's activities and how musical life is being rebuilt there despite extremely difficult conditions:
https://www.facebook.com/gazaesncm/
A very moving report by journalist Thaer Abu Ayyash about the music school in Gaza and its students and teachers can be read here:
https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1657311
Please help us to support this place of music and commitment to a better, peaceful future for all people – whether Palestinian or Israeli!
And, as always, we call on you to support those in Israeli civil society who are courageously working for precisely this peace and reconciliation with the Palestinians. More and more people – especially young people – are distancing themselves from Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government and calling for an end to the ongoing violence. Everything must be done on both sides – Israeli and Palestinian – to finally end the spiral of violence that has been going on for decades! Any support for peace is extremely important, especially now and especially from Germany.
Rabbis for Human Rights
Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) was founded in 1988 and is committed to promoting and protecting human rights in Israel and the Palestinian territories. RHR consists of rabbis and rabbinical students from various Jewish traditions – including Reform, Orthodox, Conservative and Reconstructionist – and is guided by the deeply rooted Jewish values of justice, dignity and equality.
https://www.rhr.org.il/eng
Standing Together
In Israel, the NGO Standing Together is committed to promoting peaceful coexistence. For a society that chooses peace, justice and independence for Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs. A society in which everyone enjoys genuine security, adequate housing, good education and healthcare, a liveable climate, adequate wages and the opportunity to age with dignity.
https://www.standing-together.org/en/about-en
