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Musical Beginnings

Enchanting children through lyrics and song.

Abra Cohen, Artifacts Curator and Outreach Coordinator

The JDC Archives is no stranger to manuals, booklets, and reports, but when these publications are adorned with colorful illustrations, they are transformed into artifacts. One such item is a collection of nursery rhymes and songs created for JDC-supported day cares in Morocco. The 1955 booklet contains songs with sheet music and lyrics in Hebrew and French alongside colorful handmade illustrations. The detailed drawings invite readers into gardens complete with singing children and equally expressionistic birds and dogs.

In the 1950s and 1960s, JDC’s day care program, among the first to be sponsored by an international organization, focused primarily on organizing kindergartens for thousands of Jewish children in Iran, Morocco, and Tunisia. In order to maintain standards, advise local leadership, and train staff, JDC employed permanent day care consultants.

Evelyn Peters visits children in Israel that she first saw in a JDC-supported kindergarten in Iran.

Kfar Saba, Israel, ca. 1969.

A notable day care consultant during this time was Evelyn Peters. Having taught child development and child psychology before joining JDC in 1956, she was well equipped to enter the field on JDC’s behalf as a day care consultant in Iran. There, Peters trained staff and helped administer day care centers and kindergartens for impoverished Jewish children throughout the country. In 1963, she moved to Geneva to head the Day Care Department at JDC’s Overseas Headquarters, focusing primarily on early-childhood education in Morocco, Tunisia, and Iran.

Peters helped author numerous manuals and handbooks, including the “JDC Guide for Day Care Centers.” Published in 1962 in French and English, it was intended to help local committees understand the purpose and function of day care. The manual outlines day care operations, from organization of the administration and the type of rules required, to staff direction and equipment needed by children. Its granular and scientific approach seeks to enable its readers to fully build a rich educational setting for those in the prime of their development. The guide’s comprehensive descriptions even led to its subsequent adoption by other organizations.

JDC approached day care development from a serious lens, but this songbook acknowledges that imagination and creative play were not forgotten when fashioning an exploratory environment for children. One particularly whimsical image displays a girl or fairy balancing on a flowering branch donning a cap that resembles an upside-down flower bud. She rings an equally open bud that resembles a bell. The rhyme above her head echoes this imagery with the phrase “the music rings.” Organic objects morph into natural forms leaving one to wonder which is what and what is which.

Considering the multitude of ways that children learn and engage with materials, this booklet attests to the attempt of JDC childcare activities to create a full educational experience. Though there was a focus on the nuts and bolts of childcare, experiential education was also favored. Evidenced by JDC records that consist of songs, original and translated stories, religious materials and a song book such as this, we see imagination at work. JDC daycare consultants appreciated that this integral stage of childhood and development should be met with care and consideration. The inclusion of French children’s melodies, Hebrew holiday songs like Lecha Dodi for Shabbat and even Hatikvah in commemoration of the State of Israel, show that the curriculum was made with a cultural perspective in mind, situating the youth within a global Jewish world as there was extensive emigration during this period. When leafing through this songbook, lyrics lift up and dance among musical notes, conjuring up the sights and sounds of the playroom.

JDC-supported day care centers run by the Jewish community of Marrakesh.

Morocco, 1950s.

JDC-supported day care centers run by the Jewish community of Marrakesh.

Morocco, 1950s.