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Debbie Friedman
Deborah Lynn Friedman (February 23, 1951 – January 9, 2011) was an American singer-songwriter of religious Jewish music. She was an early pioneer of gender-sensitive language: using the feminine forms of the Divine or altering masculine-only text references in the Jewish Liturgy to include feminine language.
She is best known for her setting of "Mi Shebeirach" the prayer for Healing. Her songs are used in Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jewish congregations.
Friedman wrote many of her early songs as a song leader at the overnight camp Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, in the early 1970s. Between 1971 and 2010, she recorded 22 albums. Her work was inspired by such diverse sources as Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary and a number of other folk music artists. Friedman employed both English and Hebrew lyrics and wrote for all ages. Some of her songs are "The Aleph Bet Song", "Miriam's Song", and the songs "Not By Might" and "I Am A Latke". She also performed in synagogues and concert halls.
In the fall of 1972, Friedman moved to Chicago. Friedman was commissioned by Chicago's Temple Sinai, and Rabbi Samuel Karff invited Friedman to join his congregation as an artist in residence that fall. While Friedman was being commissioned by Chicago Sinai, she produced three large-scale works between 1972 and 1975 that reflected liberal Judaism's demographic and liturgical transitions.
During her time in Chicago, Friedman enrolled in Spertus Institute (formerly Chicago College of Jewish Studies).
In 2007, Friedman accepted an appointment to the faculty of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's School of Sacred Music in New York (now called the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music) where she instructed both rabbinic and cantorial students. She was also an honorary member of the American Conference of Cantors.[citation needed]
In 2010, she was named to the Forward 50 after the release of her 22nd album As You Go On Your Way: Shacharit – The Morning Prayers.
Orthodox Jewish feminist Blu Greenberg noted: "she had a large impact [in] Modern Orthodox shuls, women's tefillah [prayer], [and] Orthodox feminist circles.... She was a religious bard and angel for the entire community." According to Cantor Harold Messinger of Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, "Debbie was the first, and every contemporary hazzan, song leader, and layperson who values these concepts is in her debt."
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Debbie Friedman
Deborah Lynn Friedman (February 23, 1951 – January 9, 2011) was an American singer-songwriter of religious Jewish music. She was an early pioneer of gender-sensitive language: using the feminine forms of the Divine or altering masculine-only text references in the Jewish Liturgy to include feminine language.
She is best known for her setting of "Mi Shebeirach" the prayer for Healing. Her songs are used in Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jewish congregations.
Friedman wrote many of her early songs as a song leader at the overnight camp Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, in the early 1970s. Between 1971 and 2010, she recorded 22 albums. Her work was inspired by such diverse sources as Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary and a number of other folk music artists. Friedman employed both English and Hebrew lyrics and wrote for all ages. Some of her songs are "The Aleph Bet Song", "Miriam's Song", and the songs "Not By Might" and "I Am A Latke". She also performed in synagogues and concert halls.
In the fall of 1972, Friedman moved to Chicago. Friedman was commissioned by Chicago's Temple Sinai, and Rabbi Samuel Karff invited Friedman to join his congregation as an artist in residence that fall. While Friedman was being commissioned by Chicago Sinai, she produced three large-scale works between 1972 and 1975 that reflected liberal Judaism's demographic and liturgical transitions.
During her time in Chicago, Friedman enrolled in Spertus Institute (formerly Chicago College of Jewish Studies).
In 2007, Friedman accepted an appointment to the faculty of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's School of Sacred Music in New York (now called the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music) where she instructed both rabbinic and cantorial students. She was also an honorary member of the American Conference of Cantors.[citation needed]
In 2010, she was named to the Forward 50 after the release of her 22nd album As You Go On Your Way: Shacharit – The Morning Prayers.
Orthodox Jewish feminist Blu Greenberg noted: "she had a large impact [in] Modern Orthodox shuls, women's tefillah [prayer], [and] Orthodox feminist circles.... She was a religious bard and angel for the entire community." According to Cantor Harold Messinger of Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, "Debbie was the first, and every contemporary hazzan, song leader, and layperson who values these concepts is in her debt."