Josh Davis is a singer-songwriter who competed on the American singing reality competition show The Voice in 2015. Davis joined the Run Across Palestine marathon in 2012 to raise awareness about fair-trade olive farming in the Palestinian West Bank. He shared his experiences in an interview and in an album released the following year.
Josh Davis gave a TED talk on his Jewish American experience visiting the West Bank.
“I felt like there was a gap between what I saw happening in Israel and between those ethics at the core of Judaism, those things that we talked about at the Seder table at Passover, compassion, freedom from oppression, equality, liberty, justice.”
He was offered the chance to visit the West Bank for an ultra-marathon to raise funds and awareness in support of fair-trade olive farming communities in the Palestinian West Bank. “I was afraid that I wouldn’t be safe as a Jew among Palestinians,” he said.
“But ultimately, more compelling, was my curiosity, and the need to answer those questions…the need to see what was going on over the wall separating Israel and the West Bank.”
After the visit, he said, “I was torn up inside by all the things that I saw, all the shame that I felt, all the oppression I saw, but also invigorated by all the hope and the compassion on both sides of the wall.”
Josh expressed his experience in his songwriting on his return: https://joshuadavismusic.com/music/2017/5/10/a-miracle-of-birds.
Josh talks more about his experience on WMNU-FM in, “An interview with Joshua Davis”: https://www.wnmufm.org/post/interview-joshua-davis#stream/0.
You can find Josh on the web at his website.
Josh was on “The Voice” in 2015. You can hear much of his music on the show at these links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulJBHC3eLMs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQOjxoKIzzk
America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEWNmkZPtr8
Fields of Gold: https://www.metatube.com/en/videos/273797/The-Voice-USA-2015-Joshua-Davis-Fields-of-Gold/
In My Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdq2TrZb1Is
Semi-finals: https://www.metatube.com/en/videos/274996/The-Voice-USA-2015-Joshua-Davis-I-Cant-Make-You-Love-Me-Semifinals/
