Debbie Friedman

I learned last night that Jewish musician and songwriter Debbie Freidman has passed away. She was in her late 50's. She had MS, and she died of pneumonia.

At DePauw University and at Harvard (at least at the beginning of my time there), I attended Reform Jewish services---Hillel. I remember singing Debbie Friedman songs at those services. There were some songs that were soft and pretty, and which were conducive to prayer and meditation. And there were other songs that were fast-paced and exciting, about like my favorite Christian praise-and-worship songs.

I attended Jewish services because of my own background in Armstrongism, which, in some manner, tried to honor the Sabbath and the festivals of the Hebrew Bible. Moreover, I am ethnically Jewish on my mother's side, and so I felt some sort of bond with Judaism. I preferred Reform Judaism because it had a little more English, which met me where I was, since I did not grow up surrounded by the Hebrew language. And I also enjoyed the Debbie Friedman music, which reminded me of the Christian music that brought me closer to God (only Debbie Friedman used a lot of Hebrew, which I liked, even if I couldn't understand all of it).

What's ironic is that I stopped exploring my Jewish heritage when I started attending Jewish schools---Jewish Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College. The reason is that, at these schools, I was considered to be a Gentile Christian, and so I often stood out like a sore thumb when I went to Jewish services. People looked at me like, "What's HE doing here?" And I didn't go to temples because I thought I'd know the people interning there, and figured that they'd wonder what I was doing there.

Nowadays, I don't have as much of a desire to attend Jewish services---even though, looking back, I do wish that I had continued to attend Harvard Hillel, on account of the Debbie Freidman music, and also because the rabbi gave good homilies, which brought in the rabbis and the historical-critical method of reading the Bible. When I worked at the Hebrew Union College library and saw books on Judaism, I thought back to the days when I loved to read about Judaism. I especially have a fond memory about Herman Wouk books. But I stopped reading about it (except for my school work) because I was at a Jewish institution and was not participating in Jewish life, and so I figured that I was fooling myself by reading about it. Nowadays, I'm open to reading about it more (when I have time)!

In any case, R.I.P., Debbie Freidman. She was a part of my wrestling with my Jewish heritage!