February 17, 2026
Dear JYC Global Family,
Today, we’re honored to share a transformative new chapter for the Jerusalem Youth Chorus — one that marks a major expansion of our work and a profound leap forward in our capacity for impact.
This year, we are launching the JYC Impact Fellowship, a bold investment in the singers who grew up in JYC and are now stepping into adulthood as musicians, leaders, and peace builders — and a step that multiplies the scope of our active programming while dramatically expanding how far our work can reach.
For the first time, a cohort of six alumni will join JYC as paid, full-time Impact Fellows for one year. These young leaders will receive rigorous training in how to lead music and dialogue workshops — deepening the very practices they experienced as high schoolers — and will carry that work forward into the world as practitioners and mentors in their own right.
Our Impact Fellows will travel across Israel-Palestine and beyond, bringing JYC’s songs and stories to more communities, leading performances and workshops, and creating spaces for listening, connection, and shared humanity where they are most urgently needed.
The Impact Fellowship is both a deepening and an expansion.
It strengthens JYC from within by investing in alumni leadership, while exponentially increasing our ability to engage communities — allowing us to reach more people, in more places, more often, and with greater continuity than ever before.
And it offers our singers a year of meaningful professional development at a pivotal moment in their lives: as they enter the world not only as artists, but as bridge-builders — carrying forward the values, skills, and hope that define the Jerusalem Youth Chorus.
We are thrilled to share that this program is fully funded for its first two years through an extraordinarily generous gift. This is by far the largest contribution JYC has received in our 14-year history, and we are in awe of our community’s belief in our singers and our mission.
This fellowship represents a phenomenal moment of growth for JYC — and a profound commitment to the young people who make this movement real. It is a reminder that peace building doesn’t happen overnight — it happens when young people are trusted with responsibility, when their voices are resourced, and when their leadership is nurtured.
🫶 Because even in times of uncertainty, we invest.
🌱 Even in complexity, we grow.
🌍 Even when the world feels unbridgeable, we build anyway.
Our singers are not naïve. They know the weight of the world they inherit. But they also know something else — that harmony is not the absence of dissonance, but the possibility of what can arise when we listen through it.
The Impact Fellowship is a game-changing investment in our ability to scale our impact for years to come.
Be part of this moment
As we build this program, we invite you into what’s growing:
Help us find the right people to build out this brand new project.
We are assembling fellowship staff — administrators, producers, music directors, tour coordinators, and more. If someone in your network comes to mind, we would love your help spreading the word.
👉 Apply to be part of building, directing, and managing the JYC Impact Fellowship
Bring JYC to your community.
If you already know that you’d like our Impact Fellows to perform or lead workshops in your city during the 2026–2027 season, please fill out this short interest form:
👉 Share your interest in bringing JYC’s Impact Fellows to your community
Thank you for believing in these young leaders. Thank you for dreaming big with us. And thank you for helping build what comes next.
With gratitude and hope,
Micah, Amer, Jackie, and the Jerusalem Youth Chorus
P.S. If this moment sparks something in you — whether curiosity, excitement, or possibility — we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can shape a future led by young voices who choose connection.