The Gush Katif Orchestra had just played its final notes at the end-year concert in the Community Center in N'vei Dekalim when Naomi Eldar ? tall, elegant, smiling Naomi ? trembled with emotion as she spoke to the audience of children and parents. "Is this to be our last concert?" she tearfully asked.



I had been sitting in the audience watching Sophia, the energetic orchestra conductor, put her baby, the Gush Katif Orchestra, through its last number, a lively Chassidic melody. The percussionists were in full gear as the accordions were belting out the tune. Children, youth, adults, accompanied by our music teachers, had joined together to make music, and to bring music not only to the people of Gush Katif, but to audiences throughout Israel.



During the worst of the intifadah, with bombs and shootings taking place in Gush Katif, our orchestra went out to all parts of Israel to entertain and to give courage to the people cowering under daily terrorist attacks.



I am especially fond of the Gush Katif music program. As a teenager, I had played the flute and now I had, as an 'older' person, the chance to play it again. Imagine being 57 and tackling an instrument untouched for forty years. My teacher Alex, an immigrant from Russia, as are all the music teachers, brought back both the pleasure and the discipline of playing an instrument.



I often played along with the children, standing with pride as I played a trio for flutes. Some of the adults smiled as I was called up to play my solo at the recitals. But watching my happy face they too signed up to study their own childhood instruments or to begin to learn a new instrument.



And that's what I did as well. At age 60, I began to learn the keyboard. I was totally uncoordinated, but my teacher, Marc, put me through the difficult paces of learning a new instrument.



The music teachers live in Ashkelon and Be'er Sheva. Twice a week, they make their way to Gush Katif and back in bulletproof vans. Through the most difficult periods, with their families frantically calling them every hour, with news reports of incessant terrorist attacks - they came.



Their devotion to their students, and especially their love of Gush Katif, were expressed in the most ardently Zionist way ? they put their bodies, their music and their skills on the line to be with us.



The music teachers gave us light when the world around us seemed so dark. During the most difficult nights of terror, listening to mortars and rockets falling all around us, I played my flute. Many times, my good neighbor, Roxanne Chemla, an accomplished pianist, accompanied me. Together, we gave small concerts. Playing kept us focused on the music and not on the deadly sounds we heard outside our homes.



"Is this the last concert?" Naomi Eldar, Ita Freiman and the entire dedicated staff of our Community Center wished me a happy summer. My teachers gave me material to practice and I was reminded I should now sign up for music lessons for September, before all the slots would be filled.



And so I did.



May we make music together in Gush Katif for many years to come.