קטה יעקב ועמיתותיה: חלוצות הוראת הריתמיקה בגן העברי בארץ ישראל

The article illuminates pioneering work of eurhythmics teachers in Jewish Hebrew kindergartens in the Land of Israel, from the late 1920s to the late1940s. Eurhythmics, an approach to music education through movement, was developed in the early twentieth century by Swiss musician and pedagogue Emile Jacques Dalcroze (1865-1950). Käthe Jacob (1898-1979) was among those who studied eurhythmics in Europe, and brought their skills to kindergartens, mostly in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, upon their arrival in Israel in the late 1920s. The article focuses on the ways that these pioneers adapted the approach to the nature and needs of the new culture created in kindergartens, integrating into the lessons all content branches of music education already practiced – celebrations, singing, playing small percussion instruments. These were adapted to the spirit of eurhythmics so that they served the ideological and pedagogical emphases of kindergarten culture. These pioneers disseminated the approach through in-service training, and Jacob even worked to include eurhythmics in in music teacher education curricula. The study presents the infrastructure of music education in kindergarten before Israeli statehood, opening the door to further research.