A joint Jewish-Greek choral concert in Australia, intended to raise money for the victims of the Bondi Beach massacre in December, has been abruptly canceled after Greek choir members voted against performing with Jews.
The concert between the Australian Hellenic Choir and the Sydney Jewish Choral Society—titled “Concert for Hope and Unity”—was nixed after more than half of the Hellenic choir objected to performing with the Jewish group, The Australian reported on Monday.
“There’s a bit of antisemitism in the Greek community; I didn’t realize the extent of it,” Australian Hellenic Choir president James Tsolakis told The Australian. “Unfortunately, we have a lot of people blaming the Jewish community for what’s happening in Israel, Palestine … that’s not correct.”
Fifteen people, including a 10-year-old girl and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, were killed by father-and son gunmen in the shooting at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, the first night of Chanukah. It was the worst terrorist attack in Australian history.
“Deeply disappointing,“ tweeted social-media influencer and human-rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky, who was injured in the attack just two weeks after moving back to Sydney from Israel.
“To see an initiative for unity collapse under the weight of anti-Jewish sentiment is profoundly disheartening,” Alon Cassuto, CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia, told JNS on Tuesday. “The whitewashing of hatred does not make it any less real.”
Rabbi Ralph Genende, an interfaith and community liaison at the Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), said: “I am heartbroken at the decision of the Greek choir. An opportunity for unity has been squandered.”
About 110,000 Jews live in Australia, primarily in Melbourne and Sydney.
