Reform Jews have the music.
I mean, Carlebach is great, don’t get me wrong. But since the 1960s, the progressive Jewish movement in North America have used music from the blossoming folk rock tradition to bring their message to Jewish youth. As we grew up, this music became our Jewish anthems, our emotional and spiritual touchstones. And as successive generations passed through the movement, the music evolved and took on the sounds of popular music around us.
From the acoustic folk sounds of Debbie Friedman and many others, the contemporary sound is decidedly more folk rock (Josh Nelson, Dan Nichols) and even lounge cool (Craig Taubman). The song sessions at the Biennial start with the folky camp songs and move into the rocky camp songs (easier to do when you have a full band on stage leading the song session). But an appearance was still made by the camp favourite “If I had a Hammer”.
The video below contains some powerful musical moments from the Thursday night song session.
It’s not just the progressives who are making and using new music. New contemporary Jewish music has appeared on the scene from Jews not affiliated with the Reform movement (Matisyahu’s traditionalist Reggae fusion comes to mind) or even with any movement (Socalled).
Music, many different types and genres, has always been a personal source of spiritual elevation for me. The language of music, the artful combination of lyric and sound and emotion, has the power to move me like few other things.
For me and many others at the Biennial, this music elevated us, empowered us, recharged us. And it reconnected us to each other.
Listen for yourself.
