A month-long summer program in Jerusalem’s Beit Hanina neighborhood wrapped up this week, leaving behind an unusual mix of finished jewelry, woven textiles and carved wood — all of it designed, at least in part, by artificial intelligence. Forty-five teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 spent four weeks learning that heritage craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology are not necessarily at odds.
Organized by the Al-Ilya Foundation for Sciences, Environment and Arts and backed by the Bayt Mal Al-Quds Acharif Agency, the program turned the foundation’s workshop space into what organizers describe as a hub for creative experimentation. Participants worked across three core disciplines — jewelry-making, weaving and wood engraving — with sustainability and material reuse woven into every project.
What set the curriculum apart was its sequencing: rather than sketching by hand first, students used AI-assisted design tools to draft their pieces before settling on colors, textures and final details. Organizers say the approach was deliberate, meant to show young Jerusalemites that mastering a traditional trade and mastering new software can be part of the same skill set, not competing paths.
The foundation’s director framed the program’s goal in broader terms than craft instruction alone. The real aim, she said, is to give young people in Jerusalem a creative track they can keep building on — one that could eventually lead toward entrepreneurship rather than ending when the summer program does. The session closed with a public exhibition of participants’ work, where alumni from earlier cohorts returned to pass their own experience on to the newest group of students.
The initiative fits into a longer-running effort by the Bayt Mal Al-Quds Acharif Agency, which operates under the Al-Quds Committee chaired by King Mohammed VI, to safeguard Jerusalem’s cultural identity and support its local economy amid the pressures facing the holy city. By pairing heritage skills with digital tools, the program frames cultural preservation not as a retreat into the past but as a foundation for new economic opportunity for East Jerusalem’s younger generation.
