In 2004, Paul Mor, a musician originally from England, suggested to the headmaster of the Democratic school in Ramat Hashron, to teach children in his school to play the ukulele. At the same time he persuaded the headmaster of the el-Zahara school in the Arab town of Tira to open a class there. The project caught on quickly and soon there were classes in both schools for children aged 8 to 18. But Paul Mor was not satisfied with running classes separately in each school, in 2005 he established an orchestra of ukulele players from both schools.
As more and more children learned to play the ukulele, parents of the children became involved and this led to meetings from both communities and joint projects to help cover the expenses of the orchestra for visits to communities overseas and participation in ukulele annual festivals in many countries. The orchestra appeared before groups of children with special needs and children in hospitals
At the end of these concerts, the ukulele players answered questions from the audience about life in their communities and how they overcame differences of their background and how they had learned about the way of life in each community, leading to tolerance and better understanding between them.
