The Jerusalem Youth Chorus

The Jerusalem Youth Chorus is a choral and dialogue program for Israeli and Palestinian youth. Our mission is to provide a space for these young people from East and West Jerusalem to grow together in song and dialogue. Through the co-creation of music and the sharing of stories, we empower youth in Jerusalem with the responsibility to speak and sing their truths, as they become leaders in their communities and inspire singers and listeners around the world to work for peace, justice, inclusion, and equality.

The Jerusalem Youth Chorus has been featured for its innovative musicianship and integrity of purpose and process from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and the New York Times to Galgalatz, Scene Arabia and more than 100 other news sources. We have recorded with multi-platinum Israeli artist and peace activist David Broza in Jerusalem and with Andy Grammer at Village Studios in LA. Our music videos have amassed millions of views. We have toured to Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland, and have performed at venues as celebrated as the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and the United Nations in Geneva. In 2017, our Founder and Artistic Director Micah Hendler was selected as one of the Forbes 30 Under 30, and in 2018, chorus alumna Eden Alene won Israel’s X-Factor singing competition, going on to make history as the first Ethiopian Israeli selected to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2022, we were honored to bring on Palestinian alumnus Amer Abu Arqub as our Executive Director, and his bold vision is guiding the Jerusalem Youth Chorus into its second decade.

The Jerusalem Youth Chorus is unique in its combination of music and dialogue programming, providing a transformative experience for our singers that yields both friendship and understanding on an individual and collective level across lines of religion, nationality, language, and culture. We go beyond simply singing together, delving deeper into one another’s identities, life experiences, communal narratives, religious traditions, and national histories through dialogue, all within the safe space of the musical ensemble and the strong personal bonds and community it creates.

Musically, the Jerusalem Youth Chorus seeks to reflect the values of equality and inclusiveness upon which we are based, truly making manifest the concept of beauty in diversity. As our members come often from vastly different musical traditions, we draw heavy influences from both East and West in our repertoire and musical style. As such, we seek to innovate and challenge boundaries musically as we do in the non-musical elements of our program.