Limmud Oz 2021

PERFORMANCE | Join us for an uplifting opening to Limmud Oz 2021, with two musical acts that will transport you from Sepharad to Brooklyn.

Kim Cunio and Heather Lee return to Limmud Oz after many years to perform their historically informed musically adventurous Sephardi and Mizrahi repertoire. Kim and Heather are a unique musical duo. Heather is an award winning opera singer whose vocal power and control are amazing to behold, while Kim is a composer who has researched and brought back to life sacred and traditional music from around the world. They are transformative and transfixing in performance.

Brooklyn Bear is an earthy and melodious duo whose music spans intimate folk, dreamy indie pop and world music experiences. As voices intertwine and instruments shimmer, they lead you on a journey to an oak cottage fireplace, welcoming you to the warm, flickering embrace of their divine sounds. Kick back, listen, love…

COMEDY | After the release of Borat (2006), the boys at Robyn's school stopped calling her a 'frigid lesbian' – we can assume because of her short hair, and lack of romantic interest towards them – and decided instead to start calling her 'dirty Jew'. As the only Jewish student at her school, Robyn took it upon herself to educate those around her. Attempting to dispel negative stereotypes around Jewish culture, Robyn embarked on a journey that would last the rest of her secondary school career: Educating the Gentiles. Join comedian Robyn Reynolds for a hilarious look at how to combat negative Jewish stereotypes, and why they exist in the first place. As she told her bullies at 15: "Actually, Jews have traditionally kept very good personal hygiene."

PERFORMANCE | This performance piece is an intertwining combination of original poetry by Bettina Bock from her latest book And I Shall Live published by the Sydney Jewish Museum and original folk songs sung and accompanied on her guitar by Nogah Strum. This mother-daughter duo retells the story of Bettina’s family struggling to survive the Holocaust and start a new life in Australia. One poem Still Soft is about the grief of Bettina’s mother recently passing away then followed by Nogah singing her song “How do we say Goodbye?” Another poem My Musical Father says “Playing the guitar saved your life” surviving Auschwitz and is followed by Nogah’s song Survival. Together they will perform And I Shall Live, sharing their gifts of creativity and life experiences with the audience.

PERFORMANCE | The imperative to pursue justice is not always so clear-cut. What is required of us? What if justice to one person is injustice to another? Where can we find true justice and why is it so elusive? This performance is a mixture of traditional, personal, sacred and wisdom tales that will explore the trickster nature of justice – a pastiche of the personal experience of a storyteller and educator who has worked extensively for 30 years with communities in conflict, with diversity and Jewish education and in cross-cultural situations, throughout Israel and Palestine, in South Africa and in white and indigenous Australia, as a social activist.

PERFORMANCE | CHUTNEY is a klezmer band with a twist. Drawing on their Eastern European and Middle Eastern heritage, they present a hot and spicy mix of original compositions plus modern takes on traditional dance tunes. Comprising well-known Sydney musicians Ben Adler (violin), Paul Khodor (keyboard), Ben Samuels (clarinet), Yiss Mill (percussion) and Oscar Gross (bass), the musicians’ on-stage chemistry is electric, traversing styles from gypsy jazz to tango, folk to rock, classical to funk, east to west.

For this show, they are joined by Australian musical theatre performer extraordinaire, Doron Chester. Most recently seen touring as Iago in Disney's "Aladdin", Doron will serve up Chutnified renditions of some of your favourite tunes from Fiddler on The Roof that will have you dancing and rolling in the aisles!

With generous helpings of violin schmaltz, blisteringly fast solos, driving rhythms and toe tapping classics, there's no better way to send off Limmud Oz 2021!