The Jewish band losing friends as arts world divides
The arts community is being “irreversibly” divided and damaged by the politics of the Gaza war, according to the leader of a Sydney-based Jewish band, whose music video pleading for the release of Israeli hostages has gone viral.
Ben Adler, the violinist for Chutney – which fuses Jewish klezmer folk with pop – said he’s had to “reassess” several of his friendships in the local music scene, after the band began playing at candlelight vigils and synagogues in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks, and released a cover of Hebrew anthem Kama At Yafa which has nearly 500,000 views in the last five days after being picked up by the pro-Israeli StandWithUs Instagram feed.
Sydney-based ‘klezmer fusion’ band Chutney (left to right): Benjamin Samuels, Yiss Mill, Paul Khodor, Cameron Reid, Ralph Marshall and Ben Adler. quiethumans
Adler’s comments come as writer Ruth Ritchie became the third director with Jewish heritage to resign from the Sydney Theatre Company’s foundation board, damning the company for its “awkward silence” in the wake of three actors making an unauthorised display of Palestinian keffiyeh scarves at the curtain call of The Seagull on November 25.
Also on Monday, gallery owner Anna Schwartz explained the ending of her 36-year business relationship with artist Mike Parr was caused by him painting the word “Nazi” next to the word “Israel” in blood-red in a performance at her gallery earlier this month.
The divisions between those expressing solidarity for different sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict are set to deepen further on Wednesday. More than 3200 actors, musicians and theatre-makers signed a petition stating they would wear a keffiyeh or pro-Palestinian pin to work on that day, and called for “an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine” and for the Australian government to press for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire”.
Adler said he had no direct knowledge of Wednesday’s protest, but Chutney had played at the 2022 Sydney Festival, which many artists boycotted after the Israeli embassy spent $20,000 sponsoring a Sydney Dance Company performance of work by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin.
“There was pressure applied to artists and venues by the [anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement] and some of that pressure definitely strayed into bullying,” he said.
Artistic communities thrive on collaboration, Adler said, but that was being undermined by the “us or them” narratives forming around the war.
“I know Jewish-Australian artists who have posted anything not consistent with the anti-Israel narrative have been targeted,” he said.
“I’ve had to reassess some friendships myself.”
Prior to October 7, Chutney had been pushing for and gaining an audience beyond that of Sydney’s eastern suburbs Jewish community.
However, after Adler “smelt the [Israeli] flag burning” at a protest the night the Sydney Opera House was lit in its blue-and-white colours, he and the band decided to pivot to playing more traditional Jewish music.
“We felt compelled to take a principled stance and be our authentic selves, despite the risk of backlash,” he said.
A scheduled gig in front of hundreds at Marrickville’s Great Club was postponed in favour of playing to 10,000 people at a candlelight vigil in Dover Heights.
“That showed us there was a need ... music allows you to breathe, be strengthened or to mourn in a way words can not.”
Adler said the cover of Kama At Yafa, a 2012 song by Kobi Aflalo with the chorus “Do not fall, do not break, come back” had been recorded prior to October, but its release was brought forward with a video explicitly alluding to the Israeli hostages trapped in Gaza.
“We make no political demands, just for humanity to prevail in this situation,” he said.
Adler added that Chutney’s Marrickville gig would go ahead next March and he wished for an audience from all quarters.
“Art that divides is not art: it’s propaganda,” he said.
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