Joel Chernoff | en

Joel was brought up in the 1950s and 1960s part of one the very few Messianic households. He considered himself a “Believer”. But it wasn’t until the late 60’s revival, known as the Jesus Movement, that Joel had a truly life-changing experience while he was a student at the University of Cincinnati.
Joel had been raised on hit parade music and at 16 he found he had a gift for writing songs. He played keyboards in a five-man band that became popular at churches, youth rallies and other community events throughout his teens. In 1972 Joel formed the group Lamb. Lamb, whose music soon came to be known as simply Messianic Music, quickly became one of the premier groups of the new movement that was sweeping the country. Recording on national labels, as well as their own independent imprint, Lamb recorded a total of 14 albums over two decades. With Lamb’s break-up in 1992, Joel focused his energies into several prominent organizations within the Messianic Jewish movement. Joel is currently the General Secretary of the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America (MJAA) and also president of the International Messianic Jewish Alliance (IMJA).
As of 2005 Lamb have reformed, with fellow Messianic artist Ted Pearce.
Joel has a brother David (aged 54), who is a Messianic Rabbi at Congregation Beth Yeshua in Philadelphia. They are the sons of Martin and Yohanna Chernoff, the founders of Cincinnati's Beth Messiah messianic congregation.

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Joel Chernoff is one of the pioneers of Messianic music. For 20 years, he has been lead singer and songwriter for the music group LAMB.

Lamb, whose recordings have sold over 600,000 copies, has produced 14 Messianic recordings - many of which have reached Top 10 status on the contemporary religious charts.

He has also recently recorded and released two new solo national recordings from Galilee of the Nations entitled, The Restoration of Israel and Come Dance With Me. His most recent release, also from Galilee of the Nations, and distributed by Integrity Music in 2005 is a new Lamb recording titled The Sacrifice.

Besides his continuing recording and singing ministry, Joel is serving as President of the International Messianic Jewish Alliance and as General Secretary of the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America or MJAA. The International Messianic Jewish Alliance is the largest affiliation of Messianic Jews in the world today with over 20 national member alliances. The Messianic Jewish Alliance of America is the largest of these 18 national alliances.

Joel Chernoff also serves as Chairman of the MJAA Joseph Project which has shipped over $40 million worth of humanitarian aid to Israel over the last 5 years.







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