Kids to fly kites for hostages at Western Wall

An event is planned for Sunday, November 19 at the Western Wall at 2 p.m. where children will fly kites decorated with drawings, messages, and prayers for those who have been kidnapped by Hamas to Gaza. 

The event is a continuation of a project initiated by the Djanogly Visual Arts Center, an art education center run by the Culture and Art department of the Jerusalem Municipality for children and adults. 

“Every child needs a kite"

In October, Djanogly planned to open an exhibition celebrating the book, King Matt the First, by Janusz Korczak, the legendary Polish-Jewish doctor and children’s educator who ran an orphanage during the Holocaust and went to his death with his charges at Treblinka in 1942, after he turned down offers of sanctuary from friends.  

Ahead of the exhibition, hundreds of kites were printed with a quote by Korczak, “Every child needs a kite,” a sentence he is said to have uttered when visiting Ein Harod in 1934. These kites were given to children, along with a blue marker for decorating them. 

In addition, a kite festival that had been scheduled to take place in Kibbutz Nir Oz had to be cancelled due to the massacre and the war. So the Djanogly Center decided to give kites to the children who have been evacuated from the South and to urge all children to decorate kites with messages of hope for the hostages. 

All children are invited to come to the Western Wall and fly their kites Sunday, or to fly their kites wherever they are, and also to photograph themselves with kites and post the pictures on the website at https://www.jerusalem.muni.il/he/experience/ginogly-center/. 

There will be a follow-up activity planned for December 7.

The Djanogly Visual Arts Center is located in Jerusalem’s Katmon neighborhood. The mission of the gallery is to allow all children to learn and express themselves through art.