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Jewish Music Festival is for everyone Philip Feinstein On 15 August 2010 an unusual but exciting music festival began in Sydney. A dream coming true for Sydney-man Gary Holzman was the formation of the Jewish Music Festival called Shir Madness. Gary is a man where music runs through his veins and he wanted to share this with everyone. The Shir Madness music festival became an annual event for the Jewish community with just one condition: Any musician could apply to perform as long as there was a Jewish connection – either one of the band or troupe must be Jewish, or the act must consist of one Jewish song, or the composer of one of the songs must be Jewish. “We don’t ask about religious beliefs as this is not relevant to us; we know that performers have included Muslims, Christians and no doubt many atheists too” said CEO Gary Holzman. Since the inauguration of the first festival, there have been a variety of musicians from many backgrounds. The most recent festival was held just three weeks ago and featured an amazing musician who’s background is Moroccan – his name is Shai Shriki. A very talented man who plays various instruments including the Spanish guitar and the oud – he had people dancing in the aisles during his performance. Growing up with Moroccan music around him, starting with his grandfather, Shai took
Gary Holzman, CEO of Shir Madness. very strongly to the Magreb style. “I love the different cultures in this festival and have appeared on previous occasions” he said. See shirmadness.com/performers/shai-shriki/ The Shir Madness festival first began at the Bondi pavilion and has now got a new home, the Emanuel Synagogue, featuring 4 stages. “Festival guests to the event have one problem: They need to make a decision as to which acts they will attend, as the stages all run concurrently” said Gary Holzman. “We always have both local Australian musicians and some imported artists like Shai.” Other artists appearing at the last festival included jazz singer Alma Zygier who followed in the footsteps of her famous par-
Shai Shriki and band at Shir Madness festival. ents, Deborah Conway & Willy Zygier; duo potential.” See https://shirmadness.com/ Being the organiser of the Australian MuSimon Tedeschi (piano) and Roger Benedict (violin) with great classical renditions by sic for Refugees project, I was pleased to Schubert, Rachmaninoff and Hans Gal; Hel- learn that Shai Shriki, whose parents come lo Tut Tut with their eastern European mu- from Casablanca in Morocco, runs a simisic Balkan Klezmer; Bonnie Love with their lar organisation in Europe and he provides gypsy cabaret; Dafka, a ukulele duo; Ilan music instruments to refugees in Lesbos, Kidron, APRA and ARIA award winner; fa- Greece. “I feel very strongly for the refumous Australian Glenn Shorrock from Lit- gees no matter what their background” said tle River Band; Richard Clapton, legend of Shai. Shir Madness builds bridges and promotes Australian rock; and many more. Shir Madness has now progressed to be harmony between Jewish and non-Jewish an annual event alternating between Sydney communities through the universal language and Melbourne. It is a non-political organ- of music. I therefore find it interesting that reports isation focussing on cohesion of different types of Jewish music from all over the from Le Desk online newspaper stated that world. With a mixed audience of all ages, King Mohammed VI of Morocco recently this year’s event attracted over one thousand ordered that Holocaust studies now be inmusic enthusiasts and ran all day and into cluded in the educational program at schools in order to fight anti-Semitism. the evening. I suspect music will also play a part. Gary summed it up by saying “The festival builds bridges and promotes harmony between communities through the univer- Philip Feinstein is a Sydney based writer, musal language of music. It also provides role sician and activist working for MUSIC FOR models and is an inspiration for young per- REFUGEES www.musicforrefugees.org formers to pursue their artistic and creative
family as their neighbour? Pauline Hanson and her ilk are too quick to demand assimilation of recent immigrants and particularly Muslims with Europeans and their culture. Did she and her tribes assimilate with the
culture and values of the original owners of this country? Who should assimilate with whom? Victors have written Australia’s history. It is time the vanquished record their version of it.
“The festival
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builds bridges and promotes harmony between communities through the universal language of music.
Separate day for indigenous Australians is soft apartheid Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s thought bubble to declare a separate holiday to celebrate as Indigenous Day is to admit that the superiority and separate identity of white Australians will not be compromised. It is apartheid in soft form. 26 January, according to the Prime Minister, is a day for all. How can that be when the indigenous people refuse to participate in it and call it the Day of Invasion? The history of Australia since that day about 200 years ago has been the repetition of what Europeans did in the Americas. It was a story of systematic killing, rape, abduction and theft of the indigenous people. The Australian government should do more than just say “sorry”, and that too after two centuries. Today, we have reached a comic situation where the original owners of this land have to appeal to the conquerors for recognition in the constitution. For the sake of political correctness, it has now become customary to acknowledge the first owners of this land whenever and wherever a public function is held. How sincere are we in this acknowledgement? For more than two centuries Australian governments have failed to wipe out the gap between the settlers and indigenous, in terms of health, education and income. How many Australians of European descent are prepared to accept an indigenous
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AUSTRALASIAN MUSLIM TIMES
Today, Australia is a multicultural society and the demographic landscape of this nation is changing fast, and away from its European identity. However, statistics on immigration show that government policy is subtly trying to curtail the intake of people from certain
“Victors have
written Australia’s history. It is time the vanquished record their version of it.
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Dr Ameer Ali
cultural and religious background into this country. It is a policy intended to appease the far right political elements. Isn’t such a policy promoting a form of soft apartheid? Even the national flag is no more national but a relic of British colonialism. While the indigenous people are rejecting that flag totally, it is losing its meaning and significance to many non-European communities. At least as a first step towards making multiculturalism meaningful let us move away from 26 January and choose another day to celebrate as a day of unity and integration for all Australians, including the indigenous. WWW.AMUST.COM.AU
ISSUE 156 / NOVEMBER 2018