YMCA - The Jerusalem Youth Chorus

In my last blog entry, I focused on the YMCA Hotel and the Carillon.  However, I did not tell you about the chorus, an official program and opportunity for high school students to come together on neutral ground.  The Jerusalem International YMCA provides a space for 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, the chorus seeks to empower the youth of Jerusalem to become leaders in their communities and inspire singers and listeners around the world to work for peace.

"The Israeli and Palestinian singers of the YMCA Chorus believe that music with a message can cross borders and highlight our shared humanity.  In difficult times, each of us can make a difference by standing up for someone who is different from us. WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR?"

ding a space

Many of us have a fervent desire for a more peaceful world. But how do we get there? The Prayer of St. Francis invites us, powerfully and simply, to embody that change ourselves. Through simple acts of humanity, we can all become “instruments” of peace.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: 
where there is hatred, let me sow love; 
where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; 
where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy. 

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
 to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand, 
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive, 
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, 

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

This past week, Garth and I attended the rehearsal of the YMCA Youth Chorus prior their concert tour to Switzerland. Having taught youth choruses many years ago, I was anxious to watch and listen and . . .and as we watched, it took me back to my years of teaching. Those were the years I was focused on shaping lives and directing young people for the better through music.  

I love the cover of the CD designed by one of the students in the choir.  

The Israeli and Palestinian students who participate in the YMCA chorus make an effort to talk openly and discuss issues they face despite their political divide. Music brings people together and in itself is healing. Similarly, last year, the Jerusalem Center displayed art work in an exhibit by Palestinian and Jewish high school students.  It was a beautiful thing to experience as students came together through art and bonded.

" Music can change the world
because it can change people."
~ Bono, U2~

"Music does bring people together.
It allows us to experience the same emotions.
People everywhere are the same in heart and spirit.
No matter what language we speak, what color we are,
the form of our politics or the expression of our love and our faith,
music proves: We are the same."
~ John Denver ~

"Music washes away from the soul
the dust of everyday life."
~ Berthold Auerbach (1812-1882) ~

The YMCA Chorus was started five years ago by a Jewish-American musician, Micah Hendler who graduated from Yale University in the US.  The chorus is comprised of Israeli and Palestinian students who come from high schools in East and West Jerusalem and represent a wide range of political beliefs: Christian, Muslim and Jewish.  

Director Micah Hendler organized the chorus in 2012.  He had previously worked with "Seeds of Peace," a peace-building and leadership development organized and headquartered in New York that brings youth and educators from areas of conflict to its camp in Maine.  

The YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus  is comprised of

13 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, all high school students. 

The students come from as far away as Ramallah (a Palestinian town located 6 miles north of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank and currently serves as the capital of the Palestinian National Authority) and Moshav (a Jewish settlement with farms and kibbutz) just outside Jerusalem. The students speak Arabic, Hebrew and a little bit of English. There are five tenors, eight sopranos, six altos and seven bass.   

"I think music is an explosive expression of humanity.   It is something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music." Billy Joel 

The YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus sings in English, Hebrew and Arabic.  The carefully chosen songs — hip-hop to chant, Middle Eastern to global pop — are weighted with words like “kulanu,” Hebrew for “all of us,” and phrases like “I love you and I need you to survive.”

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind,
 flight to the imagination
 and life to everything."  
Plato

The HuffPost news featured the chorus in this publication:  

The group’s goal is to provide a space for young people to get to know their peers from other backgrounds ― who they might not otherwise meet due to the segregation of schools and in Israeli society in general.

The group aims to lead by example ― for their local community and the world at large ― on how it can be possible, even in a deeply divided region, to “meet on an equal playing field and see one another’s humanity,”  Micah told HuffPost.

The YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus empowers young singers to become leaders for peace in their communities by providing a space where they can engage one another in musical and verbal dialogue. Through this combination of high level music-making and interpersonal engagement, the YMCA Jerus- alem Youth Chorus seeks to create a life-changing experience for its members. The results shine onstage and have inspired audiences in Jerusalem and world-over since our founding in 2012. 

Lilit, a 17-year-old Jewish Israeli in the chorus, told HuffPost by email that “the people from the ‘opposite side of the conflict’ are not necessarily Palestinians,” they are fellow Israelis who support “the occupation of Palestinian territory, racists, and in general people with whom I have radical disagreements concerning political and social issues.”

Music is well said to be the speech of angels;
in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near the infinite. 

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

From the HuffPost: Jewish, Muslim and Christian, the girls and boys don’t appear to have much in common until Hendler starts the vocal warmup and a unified harmony fills the room. Every weekly rehearsal concludes with a professionally facilitated, simultaneously translated dialogue that doesn’t aim for perfect harmony but for greater understanding.

“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,” says Hendler.

“I live in Israel, I’m an Arab, there’s Jewish people … that’s what I know,” said choir member Samia. “But I never talked to them, I never knew them, I never knew their opinion. After joining this choir it changed my life. It made me know what they think. It made them know what I think.”

Hendler doesn’t think a Democratic-Republican chorus would solve America’s problems, of course ― after all, the Jerusalem chorus hasn’t solved the conflict in Israel. But that was never the goal. It was about expanding people’s worldview and understanding of “the other,” to show that a chance at peace and common ground exists. “I don’t mean to come across like I have the solution ― I think I have something that would maybe help,” Hendler said. “If we can do this with Israelis and Palestinians, but we can’t even do this with Americans and Americans, then we’re really in trouble.”

“Personally, I understand right-wing people better when I actually talk and listen to them,” Lilit added. “Beyond grasping different opinions, dialogue also enables people to be just that ― people. We are more than just our opinions. Dialogue is not a debate ― it’s a conversation that makes us realize that at the end of the day, we are all human beings.” 



“I think there are definitely political divides now in the U.S. that can somewhat mirror those that we have here in Israel,” Shifra, a 19-year-old Jewish Israeli chorus member, told HuffPost by email (the teens only provided their first names). “Being in the chorus for five years, as much as it can be easy to refuse to speak with the other side, it is undeniable that you can’t make any progress when you have a one-sided struggle. As much as it is easy to say the ‘other’ will not understand you … sitting down with someone and disagreeing with them and discussing it for hours until we see eye-to-eye and respect each other is what we did,” she said. “And it truly works."   

Hats off to this amazing group and to their wonderful director!

Their next concert will be held July 23, 2017, at the YMCA auditorium.