The Jerusalem Youth Chorus: Singing for Peace

During the 2024 auditions for America’s Got Talent, the judges and audience alike were stunned by a small group’s rendition of Phillip Phillips’ song “Home.” When asked who they were the choir’s spokesperson revealed that they are the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, a group made up of Israeli and Palestinian youth using music to promote “peace, justice, inclusion, and equality.”[1]

The Mission

The Jerusalem Youth Chorus (JYC) was founded in 2012 by 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Music inductee Micah Hendler, as he believed that creating music and singing with others fosters trust between human beings. In a TED Talk with the JYC’s executive director Amer Abu Arqub in August 2024, Hendler explained:

I founded the Jerusalem Youth Chorus twelve years ago because of a simple fact: that we as human beings are hard-wired to trust one another more when we sing together. Singing in groups creates a container in which transformative conversations, very hard conversations [can happen], even between people who have been raised to be enemies.[2]

Hendler hoped that by bringing young people from East and West Jerusalem together, he could empower them to find their voices, share their experiences with each other, and work together to create peace, rather than continuing the long cycle of violence which has impacted Palestinians and Israelis alike for decades. “We know that as a Palestinian-Israeli youth chorus we do not single-handedly have the power to stop war,” explains Hendler, “but we also know that the reason that war continues is because people feel there isn’t a different way. We are the different way.”[3]

Watch the JYC perform Phillip Phillips’ “Home” on the America’s Got Talent stage:

The Members 

The JYC is made up of around thirty fourteen- to nineteen-year-olds recruited from schools across both East and West Jerusalem. Whilst there is a fairly even split between Palestinian and Israeli members, a range of backgrounds and communities are represented in the choir’s makeup; some are Christian, some Jewish, and some Muslim, and many have different cultural backgrounds or political beliefs.

As well as musical talent, it is imperative that singers selected to join the JYC have a positive attitude and open mind and are willing to engage in constructive (and often difficult) conversations with other members of the group.

Creating Space for Dialogue  

As well as singing, the JYC’s weekly four-hour-long rehearsals include a dialogue session, in which members are free to share their experiences and discuss the violence affecting their communities. Whilst these discussions can become quite heated, professional dialogue staff are present to help navigate challenging discussions and facilitate a supportive environment, even when members disagree.

However, being supportive in the face of disagreements during such tough discussions is not always easy. Avital, one of the JYC’s singers from West Jerusalem, told the following story about how forgiveness is not always instantaneous:

It was a dialogue session we were doing about Holocaust Remembrance Day. Somebody said something that really hurt my feelings. I told myself that I would never be able to forgive them for what they had said. For a while, I didn’t talk to them. But as the year went on and the next year started, things moved on. I care deeply about this person and love them very much, but nothing was ever resolved. It wasn’t forgotten but I explored how to forgive. Four years later, we revisited the original topic in a dialogue session. Afterwards, this person came up to me and said, ‘Wow, I realize now what I said in our first year. I’m so sorry.’ It was an amazing moment.

Most of the rehearsals are modeled in the same way, opening with singing followed by the dialogue session before the members join together to sing again at the end of the session. This way, every session ends with coming together to create music, no matter how the dialogue portion went.

Times of Conflict

These sessions continue throughout periods of war and increased conflict as, for many of the members, the JYC offers them a haven in which they can express themselves irrespective of the external conflict and atrocities that might be taking place. For many of the members, these events are extremely personal.

In the summer months of 2014, the JYC had an increased rehearsal schedule in the run up to their first international tour to Kyoto and Tokyo and were meeting several times a week. Around that time, three Israeli teen boys, Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel, and Eyal Yifrach, were abducted and murdered by two members of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group.[4] Three weeks later a Palestinian boy, Mohammed Abu Khdeir was also abducted and murdered by three Israeli extremists, two of which were minors themselves.[5] Some of JYC’s singers had grown up with the victims and were deeply affected by their deaths. Despite this, many of them kept showing up to the rehearsals; even though they had legitimate reasons not to have been there, they wanted to attend. For many, it was a safe space.

Even though the dialogue portions of the sessions can be more challenging in times of heightened conflict, members of the JYC continue to support each other through the periods of war. Following October 7^th 2023, the singers worked together to compose a song titled “A Different Way,” in which they not only express their pain and sorrow, but channel it to advocate for peace.

Watch a performance of “A Different Way” with an introduction from founder and artistic director Micah Hendler and executive director Amer Abu Arqu:

Conclusion

The Jerusalem Youth Chorus is more than just a choir. It is a project which advocates for discussion, listening to others, and offering support even during intense disagreements between those who have been raised to believe they are enemies. They put aside “us and them,” and come together to promote peace and inclusion. Through the creation of music, the JYC show that in spite of division, harmony is possible.

Learn more about the chorus, their upcoming performances, and how you can support them here.

[1] About the Jerusalem Youth Chorus. [Online] Available https://jerusalemyouthchorus.org/about. 2024.

[2] TED. An Anthem for Peace and Justice From Israeli and Palestinian Youth | Jerusalem Youth Chorus | TED. [Online] Available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQGMS4gXEaM. 2024.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Beaumont, Peter & Crowcroft, Orlando. Bodies of three missing Israeli teenagers found in West Bank. [Online] Available https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/30/bodies-missing-israeli-teenagers-found-west-bank. 2014.

[5] Zion, Ilan Ben & Berman, Lazar. Arab teen killed in capital; revenge attack suspected. [Online] Available https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-teen-said-found-dead-in-jerusalem-forest/. 2014.