This story was originally published on JTA.
A chorus of Israeli and Palestinian teens won hearts, applause and a chance at $1 million with a successful “America’s Got Talent” audition that aired on Tuesday night.
The Jerusalem Youth Chorus performed Phillip Phillips’ “Home,” an anthem that envisions a safe and comfortable future after difficult times — with lyrics whose resonance in the post-October 7 climate are unmistakable.
“Settle down, it’ll all be clear. Don’t pay no mind to the demons — they fill you with fear. The trouble, it might drag you down; if you get lost, you can always be found,” sang 20 teens and young adults wearing jackets with the chorus’ logo, featuring a peace dove.
They went on, “Just know you’re not alone, ’cause I’m gonna make this place your home.”
The TV show’s notoriously harsh judges offered thumbs up during the performance and gave a standing ovation when it ended.
“I love this audition. You made something very complicated beautiful through friendship,” said Simon Cowell before casting the first of four votes to pass the chorus to the next round. (Cowell, whose father and partner are Jewish, has donated to support the Israeli army in the past.)
Founded in 2012 by an American Jew named Micah Hendler, the Jerusalem Youth Chorus aims to bring Jewish and Palestinian teens together in a city and country marked by division.
“Singing in groups naturally creates community and builds trust, even on a psychological and neurological level,” Hendler, who lives in Washington, D.C., told the Forward last year. (A Palestinian chorus graduate named Amer Abu Arqub serves as an on-the-ground executive director.) “We’re hardwired to trust people more when we sing together.”
In the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, with tensions over the Israel-Hamas war high, some Jewish-Muslim and Israeli-Palestinian collaborations in Israel and abroad experienced turmoil or went on hiatus. The youth chorus canceled a planned tour but otherwise doubled down, giving a virtual concert in October and rescheduling its U.S. trip.
The group is touring the United States again right now, having left Israel right after the school year ended there.
“It has been a truly heartbreaking year in many ways,” the group said in an Instagram post last week. “We have all lost so much. We have lost people we love, we have lost trust and innocence, but in all of those moments, JYC singers, Alumni and staff have stayed committed to the cause and process and it has made all the difference.”
Members of the chorus explained the group’s mission and vision on “America’s Got Talent” during a short interview after their performance.
“We are the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, a group of Palestinians and Israelis,” one girl said on behalf of the group. “We believe through music and through working together and talking to each other, we are taking a step forward into building that amazing future where there is justice and there is freedom and there is equality and there is inclusion.”
Another girl answered judge Heidi Klum’s question about what the group would do with $1 million, the prize for the season’s ultimate winner.
“We will create more spaces just like this chorus — so people can meet people that are different from them so we can create this change,” she said while wearing “Bring Them Home” earrings. The message — which at least one other chorus member displayed on a dog-tag necklace — is meant to call attention to Israel’s hostages in Gaza but also signifies in Israel a desire to make a deal with Hamas to end the war.
The Jerusalem Youth Chorus issued an official ceasefire call in early June. “The last eight months of war have brought nothing but destruction to Palestinians AND Israelis, and have only served to empower the extremists on both sides who have sacrificed their own people to further radical ideologies of total victory,” the group said in a statement, adding that Israelis and Palestinians should be able to choose an alternative and saying, “It is for this shared future that we sing.”
In recent months, the group has unveiled an original song called “A Different Way” with lyrics in both Arabic and Hebrew; recorded itself singing Rabbi Menachem Creditor’s “Olam Chesed Yibaneh,” which has become an anthem for peace activists; and participated in an annual Israeli-Palestinian joint ceremony on Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s memorial day.
The judges on “America’s Got Talent” did not explicitly refer to the war or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the four-minute set that aired. But backstage after the performance, host Terry Crews alluded clearly to the ongoing crisis.
“You guys symbolize so much for so many right now,” he said. “Thank you, thank you for being here.”
The group will perform again in a subsequent round of “America’s Got Talent,” which tends to crown its annual victor in late September.
