This week marks the first yartzeit of the death of Debbie Friedman. For those of you who may not be aware, Debbie Friedman was a prolific singer/songwriter/composer/performer/liturgist/teacher/mentor/friend.
A pioneer and trailblazer, Debbie Friedman’s songs guided the evolution of Jewish popular music, and liturgical music. She brought us sounds that we could relate to in a new and for many, even deeper way. She gave us melodies that were at once accessible, yet beautiful, singable, yet moving, “American,” yet deeply Jewish.
Here at Temple Emanuel, we sing at least one of her prayer melodies at every service. The Mi Sheberach which she co-wrote with Derorah Setel. Before this composition, the prayer for people who are ill was not really even done in services through the Reform movement. If anything, they were “mumbled/murmered” in traditional davening style by the cantor or rabbi. The congregation didin’t really get a voice. But Debbie’s new musical approach, as revolutionary as it was at the time, gave the congregation the voice and the permission to sing, to pray, and to be a part of it like never before.. Joining our voices together allows our hearts to soar, our prayers to rise, and our spirits to leap in emotion…together.
The impact of her Mi Sheberach is so prolific that it was actually canonized in the our Movement’s most recent prayer book, Mishkan Tefilah.
Debbie will not be remembered just for her Mi Sheberach however. Her catalogue of songs and prayers numbers the hundreds. She viewed herself as a teacher, with valuable lessons packed in each melody and lyric.
It is the sad truth that at the young age of 59, Debbie Friedman left this world way too soon. But her legacy remains vibrant. Not just through the music that she wrote. But also through the next generation of Jewish composer/songwriter/songleaders who are paving the way for the next generation. Debbie inspired so many. In particular is L.A based performer/songwriter Julie Silver. In a recent conversation with the Jewish Journal, Silver said, “I learned how to song-lead just by watching her on stage, by watching her interacting with people.”
Song leading is a very specific art, and Friedman took it very seriously. “Every breath she took was about making that connection.”
Just weeks before she died, Friedman composed a new setting of Shalom Aleichem. The piece, which thankfully was recorded on an iphone by someone who heard her sing it at HUC was really only introduced to the world after her death. In fact, we sang it here at Emanuel right after she passed. We will sing it again at Shabbat Unplugged on February 3. It is hauntingly beautiful.
Julie Silver added, “in Debbie’s words, ‘find the angel inside you and sing it.’ ” And that, above all else, may be why we love her so much. Her songs must be shared, and when we sing them today, they continue to ask the same of us, too — to experience what she wrote.
“This isn’t pop music,” Silver said. “It’s about faith. And it’s about keeping people alive and healthy.
On January 22, Friedman’s friends Craig Taubman and Silver will join with members of her family as well as rabbis, cantors and the Temple Isaiah choir in a program at Isaiah sponsored by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s Kalsman Institute.
Cantor Yonah Kliger
Cantoryonah/twitter.com
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