Outdoor services offering kid-friendly, informal or abbreviated worship, and camp-style music are popular during the summer. Here’s a sampling of good ol’ summertime Shabbat celebrations in some Reform congregations across North America.
If you love jazz and Jewish culture, as I do, it seems only natural to seek out connections between the two. That’s exactly what a select group of jazz lovers in New Jersey did this past fall and winter, bringing to the fore the exceptional exhibit, Jazz, Jews and African Americans: Cultural Intersections in Newark and Beyond. The show was a collaboration of the Institute of Jazz Studies (Rutgers University-Newark), New Jersey Performing Arts Center, WBGO, the Jewish Museum of New Jersey, New Jersey City University, and Congregation Ahavas Sholom, an historic synagogue in Newark that houses the museum.
In 1956 when Elvis’ songs – “Don’t Be Cruel,” “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You,” and “Love Me Tender” – were hitting number one on Your Hit Parade, a Jewish girl from Philadelphia grabbed the top spot from the King. Myrtle Audrey Arinsberg – better known as Gogi Grant – the eldest of six children born to Russian-Jewish parents, reigned for five weeks at number one with “The Wayward Wind.”
As a teenager, I would sit on my bedroom floor listening to old records of Belgian singer-songwriter, poet, and performer Jacques Brel. I didn’t need to keep a journal, because his lyrics wove together everything I felt at the time. Brel had a fire within, and his anger, longing, passion, and truth blazed through every word he sang. His music, raw and real, transformed and fed my soul; it informed and shaped who I am today.
This month marks the 45th anniversary of the release of singer-songwriter Carole King’s landmark album, Tapestry, which, along with her more than three dozen 1960s hits, is considered by many to be the soundtrack of their lives. With more than 25 million units sold, Tapestry was the bestselling album by a female artist for a quarter century. On February 19, PBS’s American Masters series will mark this milestone with Carole King: Natural Woman.
From his Ziggy Stardust alter ego to his latest album — a jazzy, avant-garde rock release called “Blackstar” released just two days before his death — Bowie racked up some interesting Jewish connections.
In a d’var Torah he gave on Shabbat Nitzavim-Vayeilech several years ago, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, emeritus chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth, had this to say:
Judaism is a religion of words, and yet whenever the language of Judaism aspires to the spiritual it breaks into song, as if the words themselves sought escape from the gravitational pull of finite meanings. There is something about music that intimates a reality beyond our grasp. Words are the language of the mind. Music is the language of the soul….The Torah is God’s libretto, and we, the Jewish people, are God’s choir, the performers of God’s choral symphony.Indeed, it is our choirs and the music they generate that help create many of our most uplifting and highly spiritual moments.
It’s that time of the year again – time for Hanukkah parody videos! We’ve gathered a few of the best new debuts from across the web. Leave us a comment and let us know: What’s your favorite?
Multi-instrumentalist singer songwriter Josh Nelson shares his passion for music and Judaism by organizing Shabbat happenings for unaffiliated young Jews, performing and recording albums with his band the Josh Nelson Project, presenting learning workshops
When the words of liturgy are taken too literally, the sacred power of prayer is often lost. In his latest book, Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman offers a way worshipers can transcend the limitations imposed by language.
ReformJudaism.org: You recently published
Together, we will champion the lessons of Passover by bringing greater wholeness, justice, and belonging to our world.