SHIR: A communal moment of healing through song

SHIR Australian Jewish Music Festival returns this year, offering the community a moment of reflection, healing and pride through song. SHIR: Songs of Strength follows a sold-out performance run in 2024, with both Sydney and, for the first time, Melbourne, hosting concerts later this month. 

Formerly known as Shir Madness, SHIR relaunched last year at a time when the Jewish community faced rising antisemitism – offering a lifeline to Jewish creatives navigating an increasingly hostile industry.

"Being a Jewish musician in Australia should just mean being a musician who happens to be Jewish, but it doesn't," SHIR director Ben Adler told The Jewish Independent.

"Increasingly, it seems to mean navigating a progressively more hostile and narrow artistic landscape, which propels us towards a choice – to either make Jewish art loudly and proudly and publicly or to get the work and opportunities that we seek.

"That's why we resurrected Shir Madness and we made it SHIR, the Australian Jewish Music Festival, to build our own platform as elite and coveted as any in the country on which we can present our music and our culture on our terms."

This year's line-up brings together household names with emerging artists, many of whom feel a deep connection to the concert’s mission. This includes headliners Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier, the acclaimed musical duo responsible for first bringing Shir Madness to Melbourne a decade ago.

SHIR is presented with support from Shalom Collective, with the program reflecting the multifaceted nature of the Jewish experience, from classical, originals and musical theatre to klezmer fusion and contemporary Israeli genres represented.