From Tel Aviv Nightclubs to a Music Space for Special Education Students in Jerusalem

A new music and DJ learning space has opened at WIZO Beit HaKerem School in Jerusalem, dedicated to the memory of the late Nathanel Young, a young man who immigrated to Israel from England as a lone soldier, served in the Golani Brigade, and was killed on October 7 while defending his base and the nearby community.

Nathanel was a talented DJ who especially loved hip-hop, rap, and creating music. For him, music was a way to express himself, connect with others, and build confidence. After his death, his parents, Chantal and Nicky Young, decided to move to Israel. In time, they began looking for a way to commemorate their son that would allow other young people to find their own path through music.

“This is exactly the kind of place Nathanel would have loved,” says his mother, Chantal Young. “Music was his passion. Young people need passion, and they need a dream. Not every child has to excel academically. Sometimes there is something else inside them that needs to be discovered and helped to flourish.”

His father, Nicky, adds: “People always say that parents teach their children. I think I learned from him.”

That idea has particular meaning at WIZO Beit HaKerem.

The school serves teenagers whose journeys through education have often been anything but straightforward. Some cope with emotional or behavioral challenges, trauma, or learning disabilities. Others have experienced school dropout or social exclusion and arrive after struggling to find their place in more conventional educational settings.

At Beit HaKerem, the goal is not to define students by what has been difficult for them. It is to find the environments in which they can succeed.

Alongside academic studies adapted to their individual needs, students are offered practical and vocational pathways in areas including culinary arts, hair design, and sound design. For a young person who may have spent years feeling unsuccessful in a traditional classroom, discovering an ability to create, perform, master a professional skill, or teach something to someone else can change the way they see themselves.

Music was already an important part of that educational approach before this new initiative began.

Today, 29 students in grades 10 through 12 study in Beit HaKerem’s sound program, which includes a recording studio where students gain hands-on experience with professional recording and sound systems. DJ classes are also offered in the middle school.

But until now, the younger students had access to only a single DJ station.

About a year ago, Nathanel’s parents visited the school. During their meeting with the school’s leadership, they spoke about their son and the central place music had held in his life. The school, in turn, introduced them to the existing sound program and explained its desire to expand musical learning for younger students.

From that meeting grew the idea for a dedicated space in Nathanel’s memory: not a replacement for what already existed, but a significant expansion of it.

“When we met Nathanel’s parents, we learned about a young man who found in music and DJing a way to cope with challenges, connect with others, and create a place for himself in the world,” says Kobi Hillel, Principal of WIZO Beit HaKerem. “It was clear to us that the most meaningful way to commemorate him was not only through memory, but by creating an opportunity for our students to find their own strength and voice through music. This project connects Nathanel’s story with the educational work of the school and allows us to give students tools, confidence, and a sense of capability.”

Expanding an Existing Path to Success

The new learning space gives the school the room and equipment to take its existing music and DJ program much further.

Designed especially for middle school students, it provides several DJ workstations instead of one, as well as computers, monitors, headphones, software, musical instruments, and adapted furniture.

Around 28 to 33 students each year are expected to use the space, where they will study basic music theory and music appreciation, experiment with instruments, and receive practical DJ training. The aim is to give students an earlier and richer introduction to music, while creating a stronger pathway into the sound design program in the upper grades.

For these students, having more equipment and a dedicated space means more than simply improving a class.

It gives more young people the chance to participate actively, experiment, create, and discover whether music can become something meaningful to them.

For students coping with learning difficulties and emotional or behavioral challenges, music can offer a way to express what may be difficult to say in words, connect with others, experience achievement, and build confidence.

At the entrance to the new space, a photograph of Nathanel will be displayed, turning his memory into a living presence for the students who enter each day.

The equipment has already been purchased, the room prepared, and the program is now in its initial stages. The school also plans to expand the initiative into the school shelter, where students will be able to gain further practical experience and share their knowledge and creativity with others.

From a Memorial Party to a Space That Gives Others a Stage

To support the continued development of the project, Nathanel’s family organized an End-of-Summer Rooftop Party in his memory on September 17 at the AppsFlyer offices in Herzliya.

The event brought together DJs, music, food, drinks, and the atmosphere of an end-of-summer celebration,
with proceeds dedicated to the continued development of the music and DJ space at WIZO Beit HaKerem.

For Nathanel’s family, the initiative is about much more than fundraising.

It is a way to take something he loved deeply and strengthen an educational program that already helps young people find
confidence, connection, and a sense of what they can do.

Nathanel found that in music.

Now, a space created in his name will help even more students have the chance to find it too.