For the first time in Australia’s history, a Jewish musical group performed in Hebrew at the Australia Day Live concert in Sydney Opera House.
SHIR – the Australian Jewish Music Festival – was one of the final acts in the New South Wales Government’s official Australia Day concert, which was broadcast nationally. The group sang “Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu,” a Hebrew song about peace, before performing the popular Australian song “I Am Australian.”
It marked the first time Hebrew has been sung at the iconic Opera House Forecourt in any concert setting, and also the first time a Jewish song has been performed at the Australia Day Live concert.
The performance was particularly profound given the devastating antisemitic terrorist attack that took place in the city during Hanukkah last December. The hosts and the act itself paid homage to the victims and their families.
Images of the memorial for the victims were projected onto the Sydney Opera House sails, with the image of a menorah superimposed.
Jewish music group enlights Australia
Ben Adler, the director of SHIR, told The Jerusalem Post that he was “very proud” of what the group achieved and of “what we collectively could do for the Jews of Australia."
“We rehearsed thoroughly, and everyone poured a lot of soul into the performance,” he told the Post after the event on Tuesday ended.
Adler explained it is important for SHIR to have equal numbers of male and female vocalists, and so Tuesday’s “Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu” was performed by renowned vocalists Sarit Michael, Sasha Fisher, Ilan Kidron, and Ben Goldstein. They were accompanied by Adler’s Klezmer fusion band, CHUTNEY, which was established about six years ago.
CHUTNEY is actually the most established active Jewish ensemble in the country and is openly Zionist, Adler added.
CHUTNEY and SHIR played at the Bondi vigil five weeks ago (the week after the attack). Adler constructed the musical offerings so that “Maoz Tzur” transitioned directly into “I Am Australian,” such that it sounded like the same tune.
“A lot of people were very affected emotionally by that and by the metaphor that it sends about the Jewish community and the Australian community being symbiotic, truly interdependent,” Adler said.
The performance so impressed the NSW Government that SHIR received a call from the Multiculturalism Ministry, which asked the ensemble to repeat the performance at the Australia Day live concert. Adler explained they would need to pick another song, as “Maoz Tzur” is a Hanukkah piece.
“So we chose a song about peace because that seemed to be the most important message to send to Australia at this time, that we just want to live in peace. That’s all we’ve ever wanted to do as Jews, Israelis, Zionists... all of us, it’s all we ever want.”
SHIR wanted to perform “I Am Australian” again due to the emotional impact it had at the vigil. This moment was made even more special when the composer of the piece – Bruce Woodley of The Seekers – announced he was flying up from Melbourne voluntarily to join them onstage.
Alongside Woodley, who is not Jewish, were two other non-Jewish singers who also performed alongside SHIR – singers Cody Simpson and Olivia Coe Fox.
The journey from invitation to performance was not without its challenges, however. The NSW State Government supported Adler in resisting pressure not to sing in Hebrew.
“The organizers actually deleted a song to squeeze us in, which was very nice, but then that caused some time constraints. We had plans for a different song and a longer introduction. And the reasons for both of those preferences were in order to give more space for the Jewish community and also for the broader community to grieve,” he said.
To achieve this, the original plan was “performing music in a minor key that more naturally embodies mourning, grief, and sadness, and then to emerge out of some of that into hope and optimism for a better future,” Adler explained.
However, much of this was cut. “None of that was easy in any sense, but it was deliberate and conscious and done with a lot of truth,” said Adler.
There was also a debate around the staging. The organizers wanted to project an image of Bondi hero Ahmed al-Ahmed onto the Opera House sails, but Adler suggested the image should also include Chaya Dadon, a 14-year-old girl who also acted heroically during the attack.
Adler also pitched images of flowers, hanukkiot, and Magen Davids; ultimately, the concert organizers selected an appropriate image.
Interestingly, an embargo was also placed on advertising SHIR’s appearance in the line-up: they were permitted to publicize their performance only one hour before the concert started. Adler suggested this was done in order to protect the group from harassment or negative attention.
Nevertheless, the most important thing for Adler was that the group remained authentically Jewish and proud.
“I think for the first time in Australian history on a main stage, with half a million people watching on TV, it was not a watered-down version of Jewishness, but a truly authentic [performance].”
“And we are seeing that we have a bigger role to play than just the annual concerts,” Adler added, explaining that he sees SHIR’s role as developing into what he could best describe as “musical first responders.”
“It’s like spiritual, emotional, psychologically-therapeutic ‘first responders’ in a way, in that there’s an emergency response team of medics, obviously, who do much more important work than us. But then, after a couple of days, when the dust settles, people need somewhere to come together to mourn, grieve, unite, and start the healing process.”
“Music provides that in a way that nothing else can,” he said.