Growing Hope

Join us for our 3rd Annual Growing Hope Concert on September 7, 2025! We’ll be bringing a FREE evening of incredible music, understanding, and hope to Gallagher Way. Exciting headliner to be announced soon!

Join us for this night under the stars to create a kinder, more hopeful world!

What is Growing Hope?

Growing Hope is a call to action, a mindset, and movement designed to combat a growing crisis of hopelessness, anxiety, and fear by engaging our community, and youth in particular, as upstanders in their communities. Rooted in the Jewish spirit of Tikkun Olam (repairing our world), Growing Hope will empower our community to use the tools of empathy, kindness, and creativity in service of building a brighter future for all.

At JCC Chicago, we believe in the collective impact of the Jewish spirit and are moving forward on an ambitious course of action with an urgent sense of purpose ignited by our 6-month Violins of Hope residency–which reached over 200,000 people throughout the state of Illinois.

Growing Hope Concert

Don’t Miss The 3rd Annual Growing Hope Concert coming up on September 7, 2025 for a night filled with amazing performances and a shared mission to create a kinder, more hopeful world!

Holding Hope

The Holding Hope exhibition at the Bernard Weinger JCC commemorates the tragic day of October 7 with 251 T-shirts representing every hostage taken by Hamas.

Exhibitions

Triumph Of The Spirit, Humans Of October 7, and more, JCC Chicago brings highly compelling and interactive Jewishly-focused exhibits that seek to educate and engage our community.

Films

Inspiring moviegoers to expand their understanding of Jewish culture and to bring a wide-variety of thought-provoking and entertaining films, with a Jewish lens, to our community. Our curated film selections aspire to encourage discussion and change mind-sets.

Curriculum & Educational Programming

These proprietary materials feature lessons and activities designed to teach the concepts of kindness, empathy, and resilience, and to encourage youth to change the world for the better by becoming upstanders in their communities.

On April 14, 2024, JCC Chicago proudly premiered Growing Hope, a documentary that captures the story of Violins of Hope Chicago, and how JCC Chicago is focused on making our world a better, more hopeful place. Ours is the story about how one agency, a Jewish community center in middle America, had the foresight and determination to stand up for what is good and right at a time when the world needed it the most. Narrated exquisitely by actor David Eigenberg, best known for his roles as Lieutenant Christopher Herrmann on NBC’s Chicago Fire and Steve Brady on HBO’s Sex and the City.

Sowing the Seeds of a Brighter Future: Cook County United Against Hate is Growing Hope

JCC Chicago has been proud to partner with Cook County United Against Hate, starting with our Violins of Hope Chicago initiative in 2023. What was a big idea all about kindness, unity and hope inspired JCC Chicago to launch a movement that we call Growing Hope. Read More

growing hope sponsors

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For more information about Growing Hope, please email us.

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