Australian conductor Ben Adler says the label “anti-Zionism” is being used as an excuse to target Jewish Australians, forcing performers to weigh up whether to publicly identifying as Jewish.
He shared his experiences of anti-Semitism during the Royal Commission on Antisemistism and Social Cohesion, which is probing the potential causes that led to the Bondi Beach terror massacre that claimed the lives of 15 Australians and injured 40.
“The rhetoric of anti-Zionism with the extraordinary hyperbolic lies, [the] libels told … I’ve engaged many times with these people, they end up just coming back down to, ‘Well, 1948 was a mistake, and Israel should never be made at all,’” Adler told the commission, pointing to the often-cited argument against the existence of the Israeli state.
“The point is, anti-Zionism, at its core, is an eradicationist, eliminationist movement that seeks the removal of Israel, either by force or by the creation of a single state, which means that Jews cannot be a majority in their own country anymore, [and] repatriation that sends 7 million Palestinians to a tiny country the size of a third of Tasmania.”
Adler said that since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023, the climate for Jewish performers had changed.
Related Stories
“There have been significant and successive experiences I’ve had in the past two and a half years, which have made me feel highly unwelcome in Australia,” he told the commission.
“I know I’m Australian because I am Australian, but it doesn’t sit particularly easily anymore,” he said.
Making Sure Gigs Can Actually Go Ahead
Jewish artists now faced barriers that non-Jewish artists did not, he contended.
“My experience has been that, without exaggeration, the majority of my efforts have not been to practice my part, or to touch the violin, or to organise musical arrangements, or to liaise with artists to find rehearsal times,” Adler said.
“Most of my efforts have been to ensure that we can do the gig, because there’s so many forces that seem to always erupt quite quickly once news has emerged that we’re doing a gig … that seem quite intent to cancel that gig,” he explained.
Chutney was due to perform a few days after the Hamas attacks, and the organisers of the event initially cancelled.
After extensive negotiations, Adler had the performance restored. He then posted a redacted copy of the letter he’d sent to a WhatsApp group of Jewish performers—one he said discussed only music and art, not politics.
But someone from outside the group got hold of a copy of the letter and “doxxed” the group of 600 creatives and academics in early 2024—meaning it was leaked to the wider online community—which led to an outpouring of anti-Zionism and harassment.
“Anti-Zionism operates functionally as Jew hate, as a movement that hurts Jews, because the contention of the doxxer was that my advocacy was illegitimate and should be decried and denounced publicly, [that I should be] doxxed because I’m a Zionist, or somehow I was admitting to being a propagandist for the Zionist regime
“And that’s the way in which the label ‘Zionist’ is used as a slur these days; it is mobilised and manifests as a means of silencing Jews in Australia,” Adler said, pointing out that the Bondi killers had posted a video denouncing Zionism.
For his bands and orchestra, that meant always considering whether to mention the fact they were Jewish.
Concerned about one social media post in September 2025, which threatened to throw a Molotov cocktail during a performance, Adler reported it to Victoria Police.
Since then, he or his colleagues had followed up on the complaint at least 15 times, but no action had been taken.
“In January, we were told that they have to check with Facebook to see who posted it, and that it might take a year, even though we had that information after about three days of minimal sleuthing,” Adler related.
He had since reported the comment to the Australian Federal Police.
“I explained the situation, and I also mentioned that someone I knew had been killed in Bondi, and I was reflecting on what could have been if a Molotov cocktail had actually proved real for 1,000 Jews lining up on Collins Street in Melbourne.
“Hatred erupts the moment a Jew dares to surface publicly. If every time that someone’s sensitivities may be offended by the presence of public Jewish art, the Jewish art is canceled, the logical extension of that position is the erasure of Jewish cultural presence from Australia.”
