Debbie Friedman

Debbie Friedman, Jewish American singer and songwriter Debbie Friedman, who has changed the voice of the American Jewish spirituality and prayer, died Sunday in a hospital in Orange County, California, the sources of the Union for Reform Judaism confirmed. Friedman was hospitalized with pneumonia.

Friedman began writing liturgical music as a Jewish group songleader the Union for Reform Judaism’s Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute summer camp in the early 1970s, the establishment of ancient texts and modern, accessible, singable melodies. She has published more than 19 albums of music inspired by the great American folk music, English and Hebrew words and often the simple accompaniment of a guitar.

On a personal note, Artson said Friedman “hit and raised” his soul to each CAJE conference, adding that meetings of its extended “Kaddish De-Rabbanan” reaches the darkest corners of my heart. ”
“You can measure its reach by almost everyone uses the melody havdalah, often without knowing it,” Artson, which holds the presidency Abner & Roslyn Goldstine Dean Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies School, said. “You can measure its impact by the fact that there is a profession rich in contemporary Jewish music where none existed outside the cantorate before it. You can measure the gift by the way it seems natural now to learn Torah and singing women, voices and words of women. And you can enjoy her gift in the bumper harvest of its huge collection of animated and spiritual songs. ”

Source: http://www.jpost.com/ArtsAndCulture/Music/Article.aspx?id=202864