| For those who know Debbie’s music, it has become a treasured part of their lives - a CD listened to every morning on the way to work in order to focus and prepare for the day, or a song like Mi Shebeirach, bringing respite and hope into countless lonely hospital rooms. For children and adults alike, Debbie’s music is living Judaism - from her they learned the Hebrew alphabet, through her they came to love prayers that might otherwise have remained strings of foreign words, unrelated to their lives. With Debbie’s honest, pure voice as their guide, a whole generation of Jews has come to embrace the words of the prophets and see in the message of the Rabbis and Cantors of old, the spiritual meaning and relevance they seek. Debbie’s music gives voice to the soul that modern life too often ignores - the soul of individuals and the soul of our People. A singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Debbie has recorded 19 albums. Originally influenced by American popular music of the 1960’s and 70’s -- Peter, Paul & Mary, Judy Collins, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell -- she in turn has been influencing younger singers and songwriters with her own dynamic style. Debbie’s music is so fully integrated into synagogue liturgy, that in many congregations it is considered traditional. Churches, schools, camps, and community centers also find Debbie’s extensive variety of songs to be valuable additions for their teaching and worship use. Her melodies and lyrics are licensed for hundreds of usages, in recordings, videos, songbooks, prayer books, haggadahs, textbooks, teaching manuals, children’s books, healing publications, new ritual and self help books, and internet websites. Her work appears in diverse settings from the Barney In Concert video (The Alef Bet Song) to an episode of ?Strong Medicine? on the Lifetime channel (The Healing Prayer - Mi Shebeirach). Tree of Life, a division of Hallmark greeting cards, designed and marketed a series of 12 holiday cards using Debbie’s inspired lyrics. Debbie’s 1996 Carnegie Hall concert celebrated the 25th anniversary of her distinguished musical career. She has performed in hundreds of cities in the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel. She has appeared before national conventions and conferences for major Jewish organizations, including the General Assembly of Jewish Federations, Hadassah, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Rabbinical Assembly, Cantors Assembly, Wexner Heritage Foundation, Whizin Institute, National Association of Temple Educators, National Association of Temple Administrators, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Women of Reform Judaism, World Union for Progressive Judaism, World Jewish Congress, American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee, National Federation of Temple Youth, and United Synagogue Youth. Debbie served as cantorial soloist for three years at the New Reform Congregation in Los Angeles, California. As a music educator, she directed the music component of the intensive Hebrew Chalutzim program at Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin where she continues to co-lead Hava Nashira, the annual songleading and music workshop she created. She has served on the faculty of the Jewish Perspectives on Care at the End of Life Symposium at Duke University Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina, the Summer Institute for Jewish Educators, co-sponsored by the University of Judaism and the Whizin Institute in Los Angeles, the Kalsman Institute of Hebrew Union College, the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York, the Elat Chayyim Jewish Spiritual Retreat Center in the Catskill Mountains of New York, the Brandeis Bardin Institute in Brandeis, California, and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations summer Kallah programs held at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, New Hampshire. Debbie teaches workshops, directs a 300 person chorale, performs in concert and spiritually inspires the several thousand delegates who attend the annual conference of the Coalition For The Advancement of Jewish Education. |
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MAJOR AWARDS & MILESTONES
MAJOR FEATURED ARTICLES
Reform Judaism Singing Unto God (Summer 2002)The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles Queen of Soul (January 2001) Jewish Woman Magazine Women to Watch in 5760 (Fall 1999) The Dallas Morning News Singer has a way of connecting (August 1998) Billboard Magazine Singer Makes Jewish Music Her Own (March 1997) Lifestyles Debbie Friedman: Spiritual Healing (Fall 1996) Moment Magazine Crossover Dreams (June 1996) Baltimore Jewish Times Queen of Souls (January 1996) Forward The Joan Baez of Jewish Song (December 1995) Los Angeles Times Well Versed (April 1995) |