In this free Zoom event, Dr Judah M Cohen will explore Debbie Friedman's career in ways that have rarely been addressed before: as a commissioned synagogue composer-in-residence, a collaborator in new Jewish rituals, as a polished musician and as part of liturgical and educational reform efforts in the 1970's and 1980's. Along the way, we'll see how some of her best-known songs came to be, sometimes in unexpected ways.

Judah M Cohen is the Lou & Sybil Mervis Profesor of Jewish culture and is Associate Professor of Musicology at Indiana University. His research addresses Jewish liturgical music, musical theater, popular music and opera.