A planned cross-cultural benefit concert in Sydney to raise funds for victims of the Bondi Beach terror attack has been cancelled after members of a Greek choir voted against performing alongside a Jewish group, citing political objections and safety concerns.
The event, titled Concert for Hope and Unity, was set to bring together the Australian Hellenic Choir, the Sydney Jewish Choral Society (SJCS) and a larger combined ensemble for a two-hour performance at Sydney Town Hall on June 28.
It was intended to raise funds for families affected by the December attack, in which 15 people were killed when Islamic State-linked gunmen opened fire on a Chanukah celebration at Bondi Beach.
However, more than half of the 50-member Hellenic choir voted against participation at a rehearsal meeting last week, with some members expressing opposition to sharing a stage with the Jewish performers for political reasons and others citing fears over potential security risks.
SJCS chair Anne Spira told members in a letter that the Hellenic Choir was withdrawing and that the concert would be cancelled. She also made a submission to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.
“The result is, like many other Jews in the arts since October 7, 2023, we have been cancelled,” she said, according to The Australian. “We have been de-platformed, and it is deeply upsetting for us and for the broader Jewish community, who have been the target of anti-Jewish racism in this country for two and a half years.”
Australian Hellenic Choir president James Tsolakis, who had initiated the event, said he was “extremely disappointed” by the outcome and had not anticipated the scale of opposition within the choir.
“There’s a bit of antisemitism in the Greek community; I didn’t realise the extent of it,” he told The Australian. “The Jewish people are all into it, I’m into it, but the Greek choir was a bit anti doing it because of the political climate.
"We were expecting a sellout audience of 2000 people. The music prepared was beautiful – songs of love and peace and harmony.
“Unfortunately, we have a lot of people in the community blaming the Jewish community for what’s happening in Israel, Palestine… that’s not correct.
“You want to hate [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu? Hate Netanyahu, but what have the Jewish people done to you? The whole antisemitism thing has got be wound back.”
The programme had included a planned performance of The Ballad of Mauthausen, a piece about Greek and Jewish prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp, which the two choirs had previously performed together in 2022.
Despite the cancellation, organisers said they hope to revive future joint performances, including a proposed event in Canberra next year.
The cancellation comes amid a broader rise in antisemitic incidents in Australia following the October 7 attacks, which have included attacks on synagogues, schools and community institutions, according to figures cited by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
The same group said the country saw 1,654 incidents during the 12-month period from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025 – about five times the annual average recorded in the decade prior to October 7.
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