Fest to proceed despite partnership split
A speaker controversy has led two partner organisations to withdraw from Limmud Oz Sydney.
Limmud Oz Sydney will go ahead on June 7 and 8, despite a late falling out between Limmud Oz’s 2026 event partners Shalom Collective and its Jewish community garden offshoot Adamama, who both announced last week that they would withdraw.
The disagreement is over the inclusion of a speaker in the festival’s program, Jewish comedian Jacob Sacher, who is affiliated with fringe antizionist group the Jewish Council of Australia, and has participated in anti-Israel protests.
But his festival segment – titled “Schlemiel, schlimazel: The Jewish loser in the 21st Century” – is slated to feature content unrelated to his antizionist stance.
In an announcement to the community, Limmud organisers said they were “very sorry” the collaboration had broken down because the groups “could not agree on the final program”.
Adamama’s contribution has been removed from the event, meaning the “Sustainable lifestyle” and “Families” streams have been cancelled.
Ticket holders will be refunded, and they have been offered the opportunity to buy new tickets at a “new, extremely reduced price”.
In a statement last Sunday, Limmud Oz Sydney said: “We are committed to our values of diversity, respect and participation.
“The Limmud tent is wide and inclusive. We do not exclude Jews from Jewish learning and teaching.
“We believe that bringing together Jews of different denominations, ages, backgrounds and politics makes us stronger.”
Not everyone agreed.
Shalom Collective is one of 24 organisations supported by the Jewish Communal Appeal (JCA), whose CEO Alain Hasson, said, “While JCA appreciates the need for diverse conversations and opinions in our community, there are hard lines as to what is, and what is not, appropriate for any communal engagement.
“Anyone, both within and beyond the community, that is advocating for protesting outside synagogues, or calling ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’, should never be platformed in our community, whether or not their presence is political.
“On that basis, JCA fully supports the decision of Shalom Collective’s board.”
JNF shlichah Sarah Vanunu opted to withdraw from the festival as a speaker, saying that while she supported debate and diversity of thought, “I also believe that our community has a responsibility to distinguish between legitimate disagreement and the normalisation of platforming activists and extremists who oppose the very existence of the Jewish state.”
Speaking to The AJN on Tuesday, Limmud Oz secretary and festival organising committee member Sarah Charak encouraged people to attend and enjoy this year’s festival offerings, saying, “It’s a shame that this conversation about politics has kind of dominated.”
Emphasising that Limmud Oz, as an organisation, does not see itself “as supporting or endorsing any views, or platforming anyone”, Charak said, “We assess sessions in the program on the basis of the session content, rather than vetting presenters’ individual personal politics.
“The presenter in question [Jacob Sacher] is not presenting on Israel or politics, and an antizionist position is not being put in this program.
“In fact, we have a couple of sessions by Josh Dabelstein, who has been spearheading the movement against antizionism in Australia.
“We’ve also got a wonderful presenter coming from Israel, Rahel Berkovits, an expert on Jewish text and gender issues.
“That’s super interesting, and this is what Limmud Oz does – we’re bringing people together to think and talk about Jewish stuff.”