Jewish storytelling doesn’t have just one register. It has grief, comedy, liturgy and possibly even TikTok. And so did Festival of the Spoken Word — from poets in their seventies still asking questions, to a sold-out live podcast recording with a crowd of 200 laughing at their Bar and Bat Mitzvah cringe stories.

Voices of the Tribe

An intimate evening of spoken word, live music, and Jewish storytelling, Voices of the Tribe brought together eight poets tracing pride, grief, humour, longing, and the strange feeling of recognition when language suddenly feels shared.

Produced by Manon Gur — Sydney-based creative producer, writer, and curator whose own poetry was recognised in the 2025 Shalom Collective Jewish Writer Awards — the evening featured performers whose work spans page, stage, podcast, and community:

David Adès — poet and host of the Poets’ Corner podcast series, author of four collections including Mapping the World and Afloat in Light, recognised by prizes in Australia, Europe, the US, and Israel.

Amit Benita — Israeli-born performer and musician, performing solo and with the band Shmone, combining guitar, percussion, and voice across years of touring in Israel, Europe, Africa, the Pacific, and the Caribbean.

Naomi Blair — spoken word poet and open mic regular performing across Sydney since 2018, from Bondi to Bankstown. Happiest when the audience knows what gefilte fish is.

Marcelle Freiman — poet and verse memoirist whose forthcoming collection Dislocations (Puncher & Wattmann) traces her family’s history through the apartheid years in South Africa. Her poems appear in Meanjin, Westerly, Cordite, and Australian Poetry Journal.

Miriam Hechtman — writer, producer, and arts curator. Founder and creative director of Poetica, a live poetry, music, and arts initiative, and editor of The Alphabet of Women.

Chavi Israel — educator, writer, and founder of The Empowered Jew, a not-for-profit strengthening Jewish identity and confidence. Her writing appears in The Times of Israel.

Simon Lenthen — poet, playwright, and performer published in anthologies across Sydney and the Blue Mountains. His poem Poem Noir was adapted for radio and performed by the Blue Mountains Radio Players in 2025.

Set in a warm, intimate venue with live musical accompaniment, Voices of the Tribe was contemporary Jewish poetry in performance — shaped through rhythm, language, and live voice.

Who By Water — Anita Lester

Who By Water is a new body of songs by multidisciplinary artist Anita Lester — unreleased works informed by Jewish memory and the cultural rupture of recent years, sitting between liturgical cadence and folk storytelling.

The evening moved between song, conversation, and storytelling, as Lester spoke informally about the stories and moments surrounding the works’ creation. The title nods to Leonard Cohen’s Who By Fire — these songs similarly dwelling inside uncertainty, asking questions more than answering them.

On Having Been Here — Alexis Fishman

Directed by Alexis Fishman and featuring three distinctive Jewish Australian voices — Judi Hall, Rosalie Fishman, and Michael Leibowitz — On Having Been Here brought together poets whose work is shaped by long lives, deep memory, and a restless curiosity about the world. Performed by the poets themselves and accompanied by music and projected visuals, the evening offered a rare opportunity to encounter mature artistic voices still actively questioning, noticing, and responding.

By turns funny, philosophical, intimate, and haunting, the evening moved through ancestry, migration, love, loss, aging, and the strange business of being human — asking what we carry forward, what we leave behind, and what it means to have truly been here.

Alexis Fishman — Director, theatre-maker, and performer whose work centres on Jewish stories, storytelling, and live connection. Creator of six original solo cabaret works presented internationally, known for bringing together music, text, and theatrical framing across performance, direction, and storytelling practice.

Rosalie Fishman — writer and poet whose work draws on experiences of migration, memory, and Jewish life. Following a career in education, leadership, and culture-building, she turned her attention to poetry and continues to approach writing as a practice of learning, renewal, and connection.

Judi Hall — writer, poet, and former teacher and lawyer whose work is shaped by experiences of migration, community, and belonging. She has shared her poetry publicly over the past decade, interested in the ways place, community, and urban life shape human connection.

Michael Leibowitz — poet and painter based in Sydney, originally from Johannesburg and trained as a medical practitioner. Published collections include Looking In, Wardrobe of Secrets, and Mellow Fruitfulness, with work also appearing in international journals.

You Were Great in Shule! — Tami Sussman and Kate Lewis

What do a ‘lost’ Bat Mitzvah photo album, an ice sculpture and fight over which shule to host the barmitzvah in, have in common? They are all excellent podcast material.

You Were Great in Shule!, hosted by Tami Sussman and Kate Lewis, was a podcast recording  — bringing the live audience of more than 200 to tears with their real Bar and Bat Mitzvah stories. Celebrating the funny, awkward, and unmistakably Jewish. SBS Hebrew spoke to Tami ahead of the show.

A Jewish Guide to Surviving History — Rayni Bonne

From Torah to TikTok, Amalek to Kanye West, A Jewish Guide to Surviving History raced through thousands of years of Jewish history in an expansive one-woman performance blending spoken word, storytelling, and comedy.

Retelling Torah, history, and recurring Jewish dramas through a contemporary lens, Rayni Bonne moved between satire, cultural observation, and reflection while asking what Jewish survival has looked like across generations — and what it means to keep going now. Funny, chaotic, and emotionally direct. Perhaps laughing and crying at the same time is one of the oldest Jewish traditions of all.

Festival of the Spoken Word is presented by Sydney Jewish Writers Festival, created by Shalom Collective. With thanks to Waverly Council, Woollahra Council, The Australian Jewish News, Gertrude & Alice Café Bookstore, Multicultural NSW, Adina Chippendale Sydney and our funding partner JCA.

Shalom Collective creates contemporary Jewish experiences that celebrate culture, deepen identity, and build a thriving community.

Through immersive art, food, festivals and intergenerational storytelling, we bring people together in joyful, meaningful, and imaginative ways.

Photo: Loretta Godfrey Photography