By Eileen Wingard
LA JOLLA, California — The beloved voice of Debbie Friedman will be heard singing thirteen of her best loved songs at the Thursday, April 4, 2-3:30 p.m. Treasures from the Music Collection of the Astor Judaica Library program.
I will be hosting the free event and my guest will be Randee Friedman, who, as head of Sound Write Productions, produced most of Debbie Friedman’s twenty recordings. Randee’s husband, Dick Friedman, attended Hebrew School with Debbie in St. Paul, MN and Randee and Dick often played Debbie’s music at weddings and Bar Mitzvahs. To register: RSVP Here
Debbie Friedman was born in 1951 in Utica, New York, the youngest of Freda and Gabriel Friedman’s three daughters. Her father was a kosher butcher and her grandparents, who lived upstairs, were a big influence in her early years.
When Debbie was five years old, the family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where the Friedmans joined a Reform Temple and the children were sent to a Conservative Hebrew School. Debbie attended a Jewish summer camp where, at sixteen, on a borrowed instrument, she learned to play the guitar. Several years later, she began to compose her own songs. She was influenced by the music of folk song luminaries such as Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Joan Baez.
Debbie believed that community singing united people and she was an inspiring song leader. She moved to Chicago, where she served as a cantorial soloist. A highlight of her career was her sold out concert at Carnegie Hall. In 1998, The Jewish Forward called her one of the 100 most influential people in the Jewish world.
Her bookshelves were filled with volumes on Midrash and Talmud as well as books on contemporary Jewish thought. “Hebrew has its own internal, passionate music,” she once said. Characteristic of her songs are their singable melodies and their mixture of English and Hebrew. Her compositions are widely used in the Reform liturgy as well as in other streams of Judaism and even by some churches.
She frequently performed at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center in La Jolla where she was a close friend of the Program Director at the time, Jackie Gmach. Debbie’s untimely death from pneumonia at age 59 in Mission Viejo, California was mourned by Jews throughout the world.
The playlist for the April 4 program will include her first song, which she wrote while riding on a bus, “V’ahavta (And You Shall Love),” from the “Shema (Listen)” prayer. It will include “Lechi lach (Go Forth)” and “Misheberach (Healing Prayer),” two songs written for a friend’s wisdom ceremony, commemorating her 60th birthday. The children’s songs, “A Day Called Yom Kippur,” and “The Aleph Bet Song,” once sung on Sesame Street by Barney, will be included. Two popular Hannukah songs, the rock inspired “Not By Might” and the catchy “Latke Song,” will be heard, as well as the “Birchot Havdala,” the inspiring “And the Youth Shall See Visions,” “Sing Onto God,” and the popular “Miriam’s Song.” The program will conclude with the prayer echoed in many hearts, her beautiful version of “O Seh Shalom (Make Peace).” As Debbie might have wished, the attendees will be encouraged to sing along with any songs they know.
This is the second program of the Beloved Voices Series. The first program had the beloved voice of Theodore Bikel. The final one will feature the beloved voice of Cantor Sheldon Merel z”l, with guest, Cantor/Rabbi Arlene Bernstein, his successor at Congregation Beth Israel. That will take place Thursday afternoon, June 6, 2-3:30 p.m. in the Astor Judaica Library.
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Eileen Wingard is a freelance writer who specializes in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com
Eileen Wingard is a freelance writer who specializes in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com
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