At a time when both Israeli and Palestinian society is becoming ever more polarized, an interfaith, inter-ethnic chorus is creating a safe space for young people to confront their differences while melding musical traditions into a unique multicultural sound.

On June 30, the YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus flew home after a two-week tour of the United States that has boosted their performance skills, challenged their preconceptions of the United States and tested their ability to coexist in new ways.

The 3-year-old chorus, the brainchild of a trilingual Yale University graduate and musician named Micah Hendler, deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict not only through music but through a dialogue process that augments the experience of singing together. These dialogues, chorus members say, are difficult but enable them to air opinions and complaints on subjects ranging from mundane issues such as who sang off key at the last performance or got an extra solo to existential ones about their fundamental rights in a war-torn place.

“Dialogue is dangerous,” Hendler told Al-Monitor in an interview at a Bethesda, Md. synagogue where the choir performed before an interfaith audience June 27. “It’s not like people sit and listen politely to one another tell them that everything they’ve ever learned is wrong.”