Why we had to make Pita with Vegemite

I met Idan late last year when he was travelling in his van through small-town NSW. His band had a gig in Nambucca Heads and I thought it was best to provide some local support, just in case they were met with any anti-Israel sentiment. He had the room singing in Hebrew and I became an instant groupie.

Shai is the man behind the infamous Zorba festival in Mullumbimby, where locals have been packed out the Middle Eastern musical experience for 14 years. The music is a tool for bringing people together.

I came across Michal’s cool event space LOEV in Melbourne, when I was looking for contacts for Idan. LOEV is love, but different. They met, he played, it was amazing.

Pita with Vegemite – An Israeli Australia Story captures the perspectives of some of the many Israelis I have met since coming to live in Australia just under four years ago. Making it became a more pressing need as the sense of increasing demonisation since October 7 took over public spaces, and especially visual and storytelling spaces.

Despite so many competing life demands, three Israeli-Australians Shahar Burla, Mihaal Danziger and I, embarked on a mission to capture and reflect Israeli experiences at a time when Australians were talking about us, but not to us.

The film interviews nine Israelis living  different lifestyles in Melbourne, Sydney and Mullumbimby, and a strong theme and commonality emerges. Israeli Australians share ground both with Jewish communities and other migrant communities in Australia. Sometimes more the latter than the former. Their experience is both unique and universal.

I learned that being Israeli Australia is not just an experience, but an identity in of itself.

I call it a film made by accident, because we did not set out to make a film but to capture experiences on film.  Given our own personal connection to the story that emerged from the interviews, the films made itself, with the exceptional editing eye of Mihaal.

During such a painful and dissonant time, I wanted to share outwardly how proud and strong Israelis are, connected to home and each other. While political opinions and visions for the country legitimately differ, and those are often heated arguments, the ability to be these for each other transcends all of that. This is learned in-country from childhood, a product of army services and a fundamental value that is being tested in the most traumatic way currently with the hostages. Social capital is a key currency in Israel, and central to any migrant experience.

In Australia, the shared background and language creates instant community and family for new arrivals, like me.  In my small town in NSW, an Israeli band of hands, contacts and advice is always only a WhatsApp group away, and the film was created and executed precisely in this vein.

On the other side of the world, every introduction that began with “I am from Australia’ was met with a meaningful Israeli taxi driver sigh and the response: “gan eden sham (it’s heaven over there)”.

But is Australia really a paradise for Israelis that live here? For me, an Australian-turned-Israeli now living back in Australia, the distance is palpable both in geography and peripersonal space. I miss inappropriate humour, physical contact and being able to smell people from up close. I miss the depth of taste in the food and endless conversations. Life was full, rich, stressful and always very personal. There was always something to talk about, and not the weather.

I miss it deeply but making the film became a comfort for me and a pick-me-up for other Israelis in the quiet, reflective moments which punctuate otherwise warm, laughter-filled evenings spent in each other’s company.

Pita with Vegemite – An Israeli Australia Story premieres at the Jewish International Film Festival in Sydney on 3 November and Melbourne on 10 November. There is a discussion and live music following, as we welcome you into the world of being Israeli-Australian that has yet to be examined in this way.

Book tickets for Pita with Vegemite at JIFF in Sydney on 3 November or in Melbourne on 10 November.