Jewish Music – An Entry Point for Jewish Identity
February 10, 2011 
3 Comments
by Arlene Chernow
“When I first attended Friday night Shabbat services, it was all so confusing: the Hebrew, the prayers, the standing and sitting. The one thing that I could relate to from the beginning was the melodies; they seemed to invite me to join in. Long before I had the courage to learn to read Hebrew or take Introduction to Judaism, I could sing along with the congregation.”
These words from a woman who converted to Judaism express the thoughts and feelings of many people who use Jewish music as their entry point to finding their Jewish identity. Whether it is the magnificence of Avinu Malkeinu during the High Holy Days, an inviting modern song or a moving prayer by written by Debbie Friedman, often Jewish music transcends the meaning of the words and makes it possible for so many individuals to feel that they are a part of the community.
A woman close to her conversion date recently shared that she joined the choir at her congregation because she knew that it would give her an opportunity to learn all of the melodies and the words. Connecting with the music helped her make the transition to her new identity.
Children and teenagers often return from Jewish summer camps singing all of the songs they learned over the summer. They teach them to their families and friends, enriching the Jewish identity of their community as well as keeping the connection to Camp.
For some, Jewish music brings a sense of nostalgia. Individuals who have been distant from Jewish identity report that it was the melodies that made them open to seeing Judaism as an important part of their lives. For those who do have childhood memories of Jewish music, it is often the music that they remember more than other aspects of the Jewish experience.
As we look at Jewish music, let’s us invite those who are new, have been distant, who are young and those who have been active for years to celebrate all of the ways that Jewish music has touched our lives.
What are your Jewish memories connected to music?
Arlene Chernow is an outreach specialist for the Union for Reform Judaism.
As someone who has been participating in Jewish worship since my teens, I find it interesting that I can sing along with the Hebrew liturgy without having to follow in the siddur, but have never been able to recite the regularly spoken English readings from memory.
I’m not sure how much of that is the power of music, although it no doubt contributes — yet the spoken Mourners Kaddish or v’ahavta also are on my lips without the printed text.
This quirk may be part of why I find our contemporary Reform services, with a lot of Hebrew and a lot of singing, more satisfying than the “vernacular” services of yesterday’s Reform. But one thing we should re-adopt is the practice of singing in English. It doesn’t have to be, in fact shouldn’t be, such classic warhorses as God is in His holy temple, or Come O Sabbath Day — but it can and should go beyong the bilingual canon of Debbie Friedman z”l and her contemporaries and disciples.
Okay Larry, I understand why “God is in His Holy Temple” or “All the World” might not be the best songs to bring back into common usage, but there’s nothing offensive about “Come, O Sabbath Day”. All it needs is some de-Elizabethanization of the lyrics, which it’s already gotten in the Sinai UBP. The fact that every single verse ends with the admonition “Thou shalt rest” is a testament to the falsehood of accusations that CR spurned Sabbath observance. In some ways, I think they were more serious about Shabbat’s “timeless message of healing and peace” than we are today with our blackberries clicking away during services. As president of Beloit College Hillel, I have to beg and plead with people to stop DOING THEIR HOMEWORK on their laptops or chatting away with friends on their phones during our Friday evening meetings. I can’t get people to un-plug or relax on Shabbat. The closest they get to relaxing is after the meeting when they all go to parties and drink themselves silly. I don’t think that CR Jews, even college-age ones, would have dared to behave that way on Shabbat, though I could be wrong. Since you probably knew some real live CR Jews while in college, feel free to correct me.
One English-language song that might find some contemporary relevance is the Union Hymnal translation of Adon Olam, which is re-printed in modern English in the Sinai UPB as well. It’s beautifully poetic, relatively close to the original Hebrew, and conforms to the exact same meter so that it works with most any melody that works with the Hebrew. My favorites are the Sulzer in C Major and the Gerovitch in C minor.
All I can say is that I sat in the congregation in St. Paul, Minn. when Debbie performed that first controversial “musical” shabbat. My brother was one of her friends from a sister temple in Mpls who worked with her to make the event happen. Life went on, I had forgetten all about it. Until years later when my brother, mother, father had died and I was alone and estranged from Judiasm. A member and dear friend of that St. Paul congregation told me to get a Debbie Friedman tape to listen to. I did–and it literally changed my life. I found my spirit again, I found the strength to go on, I returned to Judaism and had my adult B’nai Mitzvah and am now engaged and alive. The power of her voice and her words gave me back my life. The rest, to me is irrelevant.