Comfort: the Jewish music that helps us heal

Many of life’s moments – big and small – are accompanied by music. A first dance as a married couple. A sports chant at a winning final. A lullaby sung to a restless newborn. A school anthem at a graduation.

For Hannah Golan, the experience of life as a Jew in Australia after October 7 is set to the soundtrack of Israeli singer-songwriter, The Idan Raichel Project.

“For months after the Hamas attack and throughout the Gaza conflict, I would listen Mi'Ma'amakim. I would just sit there and get very, very teary.”

As a registered music therapist working in palliative care, Melbourne-based Golan knows better than most about the power of music to affect our emotional state.

“We relate to music in so many different ways – it’s connected to our identity, to our memories, to our feelings, to our communities. It’s hard to untangle music from our emotional experiences,” she said.

“Our musical memory is stored alongside our emotional memory. When you listen to a song, you form attachments to it, whether that’s the way you connect to the lyrics, the genre or even the songwriter, and this can become bonded to our identities. We are then very easily able to intensify our emotional experience by listening to a song that we associate with that big feeling.”

This also applies to our connection with community, Golan says. From music sung in Holocaust concentration camps to religious Cantor hymns and youth movement chants, Jewish songs tie us to our culture and history – no matter how far we’re physically located from the Israeli heartland.

It also connects us with the present experience of being Jewish, which in a post-October 7 climate of rising antisemitism, tension and unrest, is particularly powerful.

Musician Ben Adler – a violinist who leads Sydney-based klezmer fusion band Chutney – says he has found significant comfort in songs such as Kama At Yafa, Somewhere Over The Rainbow and October Rain, which have taken on special meaning in the context of the Israel-Hamas war.

“Inherently, Jews and music have a big overlap – we’re a musical culture,” Adler told The Jewish Independent.

“There have been many songs, in English and Hebrew, from Israel and across the diaspora, which have filtered through to us via social media, WhatsApp groups and broadly in the community, that have become the soundtrack of our lives over the past year.

“They have been imbued with meaning – that being mourning and giving space for loss, grief and pain in the wake of October 7, as well as inspiring hope and rekindling the flame of resilience.”

Such songs will form the setlist of SHIR: Songs of Hope, a new Australian Jewish music festival held in Sydney to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ brutal terrorist attack on southern Israel.

SHIR, which is supported by Shalom, is a reimagination of the successful SHIR Madness, replacing the Jewish music festival's conventional multi-act, multi-stage set-up with a streamlined and highly curated offering.

Adler, who is directing the festival, says he was inspired to stage Songs of Hope after witnessing the impact of music at vigils and other Jewish community events held in response to the Gaza war.

“Jews in the diaspora have been considering ways to mark the passage of a year from October 7 and there are many ways to do it. The conventional way is through ceremonies, vigils, speeches, videos – they’re all incredibly valuable and valid – but another way to do it is through music.

“The purpose of SHIR is to provide a dedicated, high-quality platform for Jewish music. The concept is really about aggregating all these powerful songs into one dedicated musical moment – a concert, not just music as a side dish to a ceremony.”

The two-and-a-half-hour concert spans Jewish and Israeli songs in both English and Hebrew and across a range of genres, from jazz and classical to pop and musical theatre. Chutney will support soloists including award-winning singer-songwriter Ilan Kidron (The Potbelleez); renowned pianist Simon Tedeschi; Israeli-Australian powerhouse Sarit Michael; Israeli soul/folk singer Noy Ben Ami; and Cantor Mordechai Aryeh Levin, among others.

Adler says the event, which is being held on October 6 in Sydney's CBD, not only provides an important platform for Jewish artists, but also an opportunity for the community to engage with music during “a deeply reflective time” in the Jewish calendar, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. With 1500 tickets already sold, such an offering has clearly resonated.

“There's no more powerful a tool to inspire hope, to unify, to galvanise, to strengthen, to empower, than music. It’s an opportunity for us to come together, mourn, reflect, and ultimately celebrate our identity through the universal language of music,” Adler said.

Golan agrees that music provides an accessible entry point for exploring our emotions, but says it’s okay for many Jews to not feel so hopeful right now.

“I think somewhere to start before hope is acknowledging that music can validate how we are feeling. With hope feeling far away for many in the Jewish community right now, I think a better place for some people to start is to listen to music that makes you feel less alone.”

She importantly recommends having a containment strategy in place when using music to regulate and address negative feelings, whether that is switching to a more upbeat song, reaching out to a loved one, exercising, or simply taking a shower, to act as a reset.

“Be aware of how music is changing your mood and notice how you’re feeling while you’re listening,” Golan concluded.

“If what helps you feel your big feelings is getting lost in some instrumental music or dancing crazily to heavy metal, go for it and address those feelings. But make sure you have something in place to help you return to the present.

“It is important to recognise, however, that [regulating] is really hard to do on the anniversary of a massacre on October 7, so feel the feelings to the extent that it is safe for you.”

More information about Songs of Hope can be found via SHIR’s website and social media. To contribute to TJI’s Jewish Comfort Tracks playlist, email us with your suggestions.