Author: Jackie Dentino

May 20, 2025

Dear JYC Global Family,

In JYC, music is the container in which we hold hard conversations. For many of our participants, like the young Israeli singer below, joining the chorus is a turning point — a space where personal identity begins to deepen and expand through honest dialogue, courageous listening, and meaningful connection across lines of difference. In this reflection, a teenage member of JYC shares how their experience in our uni-national and bi-national sessions — particularly listening to a Nakba survivor’s testimony — challenged them, moved them, and strengthened their commitment to justice and shared humanity. Their story is a powerful reminder of why we sing, why we speak, and why we must listen — even when it’s hard.

A Singer’s Story

“I grew up in a very left-wing house, but in the last few years, and especially since I’ve joined the chorus, I’ve started developing my own identity as a Jew, a Zionist and an Israeli. But I have always stayed true to the basic life ideas and agendas I’ve grown up with, mainly, that every person as a human being deserves to exist and live in their home. In the last few weeks we’ve started talking and learning about the Nakba in the chorus, both in our uni-national and bi-national groups. In the uni-nationals we learned about the Nakba and talked about how we feel about the Nakba survivor coming to share his story with us and also about our concerns for the bi-national dialogue session after it. It was very special for me to hear the Nakba survivor’s story and see how we’re very similar in a lot of ways even though we are so different, because even though my parents have taught me a lot about the Nakba and the history of the Palestinians, it was very special and important to me to hear it from someone who experienced it firsthand. I won’t lie to you, it was difficult, it was difficult because I know many people who served or are currently serving in the IDF and it’s hard hearing about people who use the same equipment and wear the same uniform as the people who I know and love, doing such inhumane things. But it’s important to hear this so we can change, a story that isn’t heard is a story that can’t impact and can’t make a change and all stories deserve the chance to make a change.”

This kind of reflection is exactly what fuels our hope and drives our mission forward. It’s also what makes this moment — and our upcoming tour — so important.

We hope you will join us—whether in person or online—during our upcoming tour from May 26–June 5, as we amplify our voices and build critical support for our work in Jerusalem. The tour features a dynamic lineup of events, including live and livestreamed concerts, intimate storytelling sessions, hands-on workshops, and a unique evening at Nabiha DC that blends Palestinian cuisine with brave, boundary-crossing dialogue.

With powerful trilingual performances and moving personal stories, JYC creates space for real connection and transformative conversations, inspiring audiences to imagine—and work toward—a shared future. Our message resonates most powerfully where voices can be heard, stories can be felt, and real relationships can begin.

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June 3: Washington, DC St. Columba’s Episcopal Church 7:00pm Concert 8:30pm VIP Reception

June 4: Washington, DC Levine Music 7:00pm Community Sing Register

June 5: Washington, DC Performance at Meridian Culturefix Taste of a Shared Future: A Musical-Culinary Journey 5:30pm | 8:00pm at Nabiha DC

^{Get Your Tour Swag!}

_{Wear the Message. Be the Movement.
Show your support for the Jerusalem Youth Chorus by wearing official tour merchandise to our upcoming concerts and wherever you may go! When our young singers look out from the stage and see supporters in JYC gear, they’ll see more than an audience — they’ll see their global family standing with them in hope, courage, and commitment to a shared future beyond violence.}

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Support Our Programming

JYC tours offer our young singers powerful opportunities to share their voices and vision with the world—but those moments on stage are only possible because of the ongoing, year-round work we lead in Jerusalem.

Your support fuels more than performances. It sustains our twice-weekly music and dialogue sessions in one of the world’s most divided cities, where Israeli and Palestinian teens come together to build trust, face difficult truths, and grow into leaders within their communities. Whether or not this upcoming tour brings us to your city, your gift becomes part of this larger story of resilience, connection, and change.

To help us rise to the challenges ahead, longtime supporter Sally Gottesman has offered a generous $75,000 matching gift—doubling every dollar you give, up to that amount. This match will help us recover $150,000 in lost USAID funding for 2025.

This work isn’t easy—but, with each passing day, it’s more essential than ever. And we can’t do it without you.

Whether they’re singing on a global stage or sharing their vulnerability in a closed dialogue session, JYC singers are young people whose lives have been shaped by conflict and loss. Still, they choose to come together—not despite their differences, but because of them—to envision a more hopeful future. We owe it to them, and to ourselves, to invest in a world where connection overcomes division, and where the response to violence is not silence, but song.

Come listen. Come witness. Come be part of the movement.
Because when young voices sing from the frontlines of hope, the world listens.

With hope and harmony,
Micah, Amer, Jackie, and the Jerusalem Youth Chorus