An Australian klezmer band’s reaction to October 7
Why the band Chutney “came out” as Zionist
Make sure to read “Musicians for ceasefire hold two webinars to exchange songs, tactics” to hear another side of musical activism by musicians in the wake of October 7.
“Within 36 hours, we’d completely pivoted and made a decision to come out as Zionist” says Ben Adler of the Australian klezmer band Chutney.
Chutney’s music video for the song “Kama At Yafa” called for solidarity with Israel following the events of October 7. The video gained substantial popularity, receiving nearly half a million views following a collab post on Instagram alongside StandWithUs, an organization which describes itself as “an international, non-partisan educational organization that supports Israel and fights antisemitism.”
Who are Chutney?
Chutney was founded in 2020 by Sydney-based musicians Ben Adler and Paul Khodor. It was during the COVID lockdowns that Khodor finally convinced Adler to start a band together. Adler and Khodor, who play violin and keyboard respectively, soon found a drummer and bassist to join their ranks. They began playing for Sydney’s Jewish community and at local arts festivals.
Adler has described Chutney’s sound as “klezmer fusion,” and it draws musical flavor from several musical areas. Chutney explored klezmer through recordings and fakebooks like “The Compleat Klezmer” by Henry Sapoznik. Adler himself is classically trained and also notes that Chutney tries to make the music their own by adding Latin rhythms or reggae sounds.
“We take klezmer tunes and we modernize them, with respect, because that’s our heritage,” said Adler. He also noted an upcoming track based on Britney Spears’ song “Toxic,” to make a distinction. “We also take non-Jewish music and we klezmerify it,” said Adler.
“Coming out” with a music video
While Chutney’s music draws on Jewish heritage, the band has felt the need to stray away from a specifically Jewish branding at certain points. In order to get certain gigs, Adler describes Chutney’s assimilative strategy in marketing themselves. “It was very much a non-Jewish marketing campaign,” said Adler. “We got new photos taken that positioned us in a space that was comparable to any other kind of semi-hipster group. World fusion was kind of what we were expressing ourselves as.”
Following the events of October 7, Chutney decided within two days to rebrand, centering their Jewish and Zionist identities. “I think it’s very easy to define. It means [Chutney] supports Israel’s right to exist and defend itself as a Jewish state, which is something we hadn’t done before,” said Adler, explaining Chutney’s Zionist stance. Two months later they released the music video “Kama At Yafa,” covering a song originally released by Israeli pop star Shiri Maimon.
The music video features statements of solidarity with Israeli from Zionist activist Noa Tishby, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak among others. It also includes dozens of videos featuring different instances of Jewish or Israeli solidarity, communal celebration and music-making.
Adler has stated before that “art which divides is not art: it’s propaganda.” In response to the question of whether the video comes off as tone deaf or divisive in a two-sided conflict where both sides are suffering, Adler disagrees, responding with a metaphor. “When your grandmother dies, you mourn. That same day there must’ve been 1000 grandmothers who died — you didn’t mourn for them,” Adler explains. He goes on, explaining that “Israel is our family, this isn’t just a metaphor — literally I have cousins in tanks.”
Adler believes most of Chutney’s audience at this point are likely Jewish or Zionist. Most of the negative blowback has been on personal relationships. Adler goes on to describe that the band had no desire to denigrate Palestinians or Arabs with the video. “On the contrary, you may have noticed, it highlights moments of compassion between the IDF and Gazans.”
According to Adler, after October 7 and before they released their Israeli solidarity video, a festival had very briefly considered dropping Chutney. This was not the first instance in Australia of the arts being questioned based on negative opinions of the Israeli government.
The Sydney Festival boycott
In 2022, along with Iraqi musician Nawfel Alfaris, Adler penned an op-ed in the Sydney Morning Herald. The article opposed a boycott by 20 or so artists of the Sydney Festival, an annual arts festival. Adler and Alfaris felt this boycott set a dangerous precedent.
Please read pic.twitter.com/4FjZzobWHi
— Shari Niliwil Sebbens (@sharileesebbo) January 5, 2022
To clarify, yes, I am boycotting Sydney Festival 2022. The Israeli Embassy, a star sponsor of Sydfest 2022, collaborates with Western cultural institutions to paint Israel as a liberal democracy on one hand while enforcing brutal occupation and apartheid with the other. No more.
— Marcus (@marcuswhale) January 2, 2022
The boycott was promoted by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement as one of their “cultural boycotts.” BDS’ website explains their promotion of cultural boycotts because of their belief that “Israel overtly uses culture as a form of propaganda to whitewash or justify its regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people.” The Sydney Festival boycott was in reaction to the festival receiving funding from the Israeli embassy.
In Adler and Alfaris’ view, music’s ability to build bridges was too important. “What is art, after all, if not our best attempt to explore and consolidate our shared humanity?” they wrote. In their view, the specific boycotting of Israel was racist and hypocritical. “What about our own government’s human rights record? Should we boycott ourselves?” they wrote, comparing Israel to Australia.
Recognizing the divisive political reality of Israel-Palestine, Adler thinks that advocates for Palestine have been more successful than those for Israeli in encouraging empathy, especially among the youth. Ultimately, Adler believes based on experience that the realm of art should be a uniting force. “We were shocked when [Chutney] went to places…which had zero Jews. The hora circle just went off and people naturally took to it and loved it,” said Adler.
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