Deborah Conway visiting Kibbutz Nir Oz, with guide Roy who experienced the terror for 11 horrendous hours hiding behind his futon while the terrorists sat on the couch and smoked. Photo: Tammy Bar-Shay
Deborah Conway visiting Kibbutz Nir Oz, with guide Roy who experienced the terror for 11 horrendous hours hiding behind his futon while the terrorists sat on the couch and smoked. Photo: Tammy Bar-Shay
‘A badge of honour’A ‘harrowing, emotional, mind-blowing’ trip

Countering the insane narrative

Deborah Conway is loudly and proudly Jewish. She recently returned from Israel where she volunteered, performed and bore witness to the atrocities of October 7.

Deborah Conway wears her Judaism as a badge of honour.

The singer-songwriter views her advocacy as “a defence against insanity”.

Conway has been abandoned, cancelled, and had security deployed at events where she was scheduled to appear.

Charities that have hired her have suddenly cancelled appearances.

Interviews she has recorded haven’t gone to air.

But she told The AJN that she simply had to speak up and out.

“I’m a Jew. I’m a Zionist. It’s always been thus,” Conway said. “I’m not reclaiming anything. I’m not acknowledging anything that I haven’t, for my entire life, understood about myself, that is core to my being. And then to be suddenly exposed to a world where someone like me is no longer welcome, or is now perceived as the enemy, understood as being someone who wants to perpetrate genocide, it’s repulsive. It’s so ugly; it feels Kafkaesque.”

Conway believes that the narrative needs to be countered.

Embracing the concept of “if not me, who”, Conway does just that.

“You have to stand up and say ‘no, I’m none of those things. I’m a Jew, I’m a Zionist and I don’t believe in genocide’,” she said. “But this is a terrible situation that has been forced upon Israel. This war is awful. We’re in Australia. We are a long, long way away from the Middle East and nothing that anyone does in Australia is going to make any difference to what happens there, but it will destroy livelihoods, and maybe even lives, here.”

Deborah and Willy volunteering.

Conway and her partner – in life and in music – Willy Zygier recently returned from a trip to Israel which Conway said was an incredible opportunity to both bear witness and also to be immersed in Israeli culture.

“It was harrowing, emotional, mind-blowing,” she recalled. “What these people have been through, who are so brave and still standing, and are there to tell their stories to as many people as will listen.”

Conway and Zygier took part in an Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Rambam study tour. During the whirlwind trip, Conway said they visited the site of the Nova Music Festival – now a memorial to the victims – as well as Kibbutzim Kfar Aza and Nir Oz in the Gaza Envelope. They also went up north, were briefed by various people on the situation throughout the country and heard from survivors.

And they saw the 47-minute film.

While Conway said that at first, she didn’t want to watch anything related to October 7, being in Israel she felt she had to do it, that it was “an important thing to do”.

“There’s no words,” she said when reflecting on the footage.

Prior to leaving Australia, Conway had mentioned that she and Zygier wished to play a couple of gigs in Israel as well as volunteer.

So, following the AIJAC tour, that’s what they did.

“to be suddenly exposed to a world where someone like me is no longer welcome, or is now perceived as the enemy, understood as being someone who wants to perpetrate genocide, it’s repulsive. It’s so ugly; it feels Kafkaesque.”

“Willy and I powered ourselves for the next couple of weeks. We did some volunteering at an organisation called Leket that collects food that the shops don’t want to sell, and they distribute it to people who need it. They’re buying food from farmers who can’t sell it as well. It’s an extraordinary organisation.”

Conway recalls people from all walks of life joining the organisation to volunteer – young, old, religious, secular. “People just kept coming and coming.”

And then the duo managed to get some gigs, including opening the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival and playing for an organisation called Roots, an Israeli-Palestinian initiative that works to promote peace.

The duo also performed at the Port of Tel Aviv Hanger, with funds donated to Magen David Adom. Conway describes each show as “beautiful”.

“People really got us,” she recalled. “The language was no barrier. They really got our songs, even songs that we’ve been writing and performing for the past 10 years were just so well received. They understood them.”

Deborah and Willy performing in Israel.

What Conway also noticed throughout her time in Israel was that she didn’t come across any calls for revenge.

“I wasn’t hearing any viciousness towards Palestinian society. It’s not there. There are a lot of very bewildered people who are really hurt,” she explained. “You go to hostage square on a Saturday night, which we did, and it’s people looking for comfort; singing and praying together.”

Facing the antisemitism at home in Australia is a foreign concept for Conway.

Explaining that she grew up in the golden years where antisemitism rarely reared its ugly head, she acknowledges that it has been rising for some time.

“We’ve all detected it,” she said. But she recognises that not everyone is going to be comfortable being so loud.

“It’s a very personal decision. I’m old, I’ve got less to lose than a lot of young people. I completely get it,” she said when asked if she had any advice if the younger generation wanted to speak up but feared tarnishing their reputation.

“I guess the thing for me is that it was too tearing to live a completely different private life to my public life. I couldn’t do it. But for other people, it’s not the same. And we need to respect that.”

read more:
comments