While looking through old videos I recorded of Debbie over the years my tears needed to write a song. This is what I wrote today.

I never had the honor or pleasure to know or meet Debbie Friedman personally, but her music and her talent has touched my life and will be part of my life forever, as I know it has touched countless millions.

I just read on Facebook and confirmed with an online Jewish newspaper that Debbie Friedman has passed away this afternoon. She was hospitalized for a few days with pneumonia. I always wanted to meet Debbie Friedman. My hope was to have her be invited by my congregation for a Friday night service.

My favorite Shabbat services on Kibbutz Lotan are those when Inda (Inspired particularly by Debbie and the many other song and prayer leaders who blessed our camps and congregations with music) and our son Shahar lead us in prayer and song.

We had the great pleasure and honor to host Debbie Friedman for a concert just last year.

We'll always remember Debbie Friedman's contribution to the Jewish Community.

Kutz Camp, 1971...a young woman sits against the wall in the Program Room..we all sing along.

I still remember my synagogue cantor teaching us Debbie's latest melody to "Mi Chamocha" one Sunday morning at Sunday School, in the mid-1990s.

I met Debbie Friedman at my first CAJE in 1986. I was wearing the first timer's ribbon and Debbie made sure to say hello to me and make me feel welcome.

Your Ears Should Hear

To a very unique musician whose words and music transformed my husband's and my life.

Our children grew up listening to Debbie's music at home, at temple and at OSRUI.

For many years at Kol Ami, we had a monthly healing service. Whenever she could, Debbie would come and sing with us and to us.

We were fortunate to be among Debbie's 5000 closest friends. We have many wonderful memories from the URJ Kallot where Debbie was frequently on the faculty.

In preparing to lead a beit midrash discussion at my congregation this Shabbat, I came across an extraordinary midrash.

I am very grateful that I was able to get to know Debbie this past fall at Shabbat Shira at OSRUI.

Thank you for making our lives sweeter, more joyous and more wonderful.

Debbie and I met when she oferred her first Healing Service at Congregtion Kol Ami in White Plains, NY.

I am a songleader. I have been labeled a cantorial soloist, a teacher of music, a singer of Jewish liturgy-but ultimately I am songleader. I stand in front of my congregation, my community--guitar strapped onto my shoulder, and I facilitate prayer and spiritual awakening through music. I have always wanted to be a songleader ever since I heard my first Debbie Friedman song.

Sunday, January 9, 2011 10:10 PM, EST Debbie Friedman died this morning. A very important voice of song in the Reform Jewish music has been stilled. I was taken aback at how hugely her death jarred me. So many reasons.... certainly anyone my age or older remembers Jewish music before Debbie's (at camp we sang Pete Seeger, whose music started making a comeback in this venue a couple of years ago).

I first met Debbie Friedman in the summer of 1969 at the National Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) Kutz Camp in Warwick, NY. I was a 15 year-old high school sophomore, sent by my synagogue to the NFTY Song and Dance Leaders Institute and Debbie was one of my teachers. She had just graduated high school in St Paul, and song-leading at the camp was her first national gig.

My memories of Debbie begin at UAHC Camp Swig when I was a youngster where she inspired me to sing, to write, to love being Jewish.

I became a Cantorial Soloist about 25 years ago. I learned my craft from Debbie. Her songs moved me to pray through singing.

Debbie helped create Hava Nashir, the URJ songleader training at OSRUI. While I saw Debbie most summers at CAJE and other venues, it was our time together at the one Hava Nashir we shared that gave me an opportunity to get to know her better as a friend as well as a colleague.

Debbie gave voice to many texts and experiences that before her were often either difficult to find, or were left to the purview of cantors or music professionals. And she gave voice, the permission to express ourselves fully, to so many in the Jewish community.

Walking into my first song session, more than 30 years ago at Kutz Camp, I knew that I had come home. The music danced through my head, becoming the soundtrack of my youth and of my life.

Just two weeks ago, many of us were together at Limmud UK, where we certainly sang a number of songs to God. We were led, not by Miriam, but by Debbie Friedman, zichrona l'vracha.

Debbie brought joy and depth to Jewish music and included women.

In 1971 Debbie Friedman changed my life. She had recently completed 'Sing Unto God' and came to the PAFTY Winter Convention in Monroeville PA. I had the honor of being asked to sing with 20 other people to sing in her choir - we introduced 'Sing unto God'. I had always loved the Jewish liturgy, but this was something I had never heard, let alone participate.

Debbie's music meant so much to me from the time I discovered it in youth group in the early 1970s through many Camp Kutz and NFTY (also JFTY -- I grew up in NJ) events, and I wanted to share some of what I wrote.

I met Debbie when she was songleader at NFTY leadership camp at Camp Kutz, the summer of 1969.

Debbie not only touched the lives of individuals but whole families as well.

Our camp, with the assistance of JLC, led services have been deepened, enriched, and share the joyful essence of Judaism thanks to Debbie's music.

I never got to meet Debbie Friedman in person, but I attended a concert of hers in Cincinnati, Ohio in November, 1993, two days after my mother's funeral.

Debbie Friedman was a rare talent whose melodies connected young people across time and place, all with a desire for community and good works.

I was able to see Debbie in concert here in New Orleans, and I will never forget it.

Debbie made a tremendous impression on my life with her songs, which I sang for 11 years at camp and in NFTY.

I am a songleader. I have been labeled a cantorial soloist, a teacher of music, a singer of Jewish liturgy-but ultimately I am songleader. I stand in front of my congregation, my community--guitar strapped onto my shoulder, and I facilitate prayer and spiritual awakening through music. I have always wanted to be a songleader ever since I heard my first Debbie Friedman song.

I have personally known Debbie since the late 1970s or early 1980s when we both lived in Houston, Texas, and I have such fond memories of our friendship.

I was a member of PAFTY, Pennsylvania. Federation of Temple Youth, in middle school.

Diane and I went to a long weekend program in Phoenix, AZ several years ago.

It wasn't such a long, long time ago that I could remember a time without cell phones. It also wasn't such a long time ago that I could pick my mom up at the gate when she came home from a business trip. I can also remember a time when the nightly news was important. Yet I don't remember a time without Debbie Friedman.

I remember first meeting Debbie Friedman at the age of 16 (1969) at the Leadership institute at Kutz Camp.

Our lives are richer...

Thank you to you, Debbie.

I remember at a workshop at the end of October, she told us that she had had dry spells as far as writing songs.

Debbie's music was a gift.

Debbie's music has woven it's way into many parts of my life.

Debbie was my youth group leader in 1972-73 at Temple Emanuel, Chicago. She was hardly older than we were.

Debbie Friedman's music has added so much to our lives and liturgy.

I grew up through the Reform Youth Movement on Long Island and spent my summers at Warwick in the late 1960's.

I grew up through the Reform Youth Movement on Long Island and spent my summers at Warwick in the late 1960's.

Debbie's sweet music has brought so much comfort to broken bodies and souls.

While I saw Debbie many times as an adult,I remember Debbie most vibrantly as a 20 year old, irreverent, funny, bubbly, and strong.

My children will always remember so many of your songs and forever sing Aleph Bet. Thank you for shining your music on them.

I met Debbie at Oconomowoc at a youth group Winter Conclave in the late 1950's.

What a loss to our reform movement.

It's incredible to watch the use of online social media over the last few days to connect a community in mourning. Debbie Friedman, z"l represented so many different things to the world and through blogging, Twitter, and Facebook, we all have joined together. The shock of her death is still fresh to me. It is hard to imagine a world without Debbie but if you think about it, Debbie will always be a part of our world.

Growing up the son of a Reform Rabbi, Debbie Friedman's music was everywhere.

We sit side by side, staring up at the power point screen, the newest innovation in summer camp songleading. It's a hot summer evening in Warwick, New York, and yet she wears jeans and a long sleeved shirt, sweating maybe, but looking calm and cooled by, I can only guess, the youthful voices around us

I first met Debbie as a "leader in training" at the UAHC Kutz Camp in 1970.

Debbie, your music and blessings touched and lifted people (Jewish and non Jewish) around the world. G-d sent you and your angelic voice to us to comfort us when we are down, lonely, sad, in pain or in sorrow. You also lifted our spirits with joyful sounds and brought us together as a community.

I have never met Debbie as a youth but my wife Amy Citron was a friend and a co-conspiritor in the PAFTY organization.

Debbie Friedman's music, her use of folk music to tap into Jewish spirituality, inspired me on my own spiritual journey.

Thank you Debbie for the wonderful music.

For my twenty years as a Jewish educator, not to mention as a parent, I used Debbie's catchy, inspiring music.

Her music was my youth...I mourn the loss of all the music we will never hear. She was young and there were more notes for her to write.

I first witnessed Debbie's magic was she was the NFTY Senior Songleader at Kutz with David Altshuler in 1970.

I am deeply saddended by the untimely passing of Debbie Friedman. I first heard her music in the late 1970's at a Jewish Cafe - Elijah's Cup in Chicago.

Debbie was a inspiration our family in so many ways.

Singing Debbie Friedman tunes to me is know different than breathing.

I have always had my tape recorder (or other recording device) at conventions in case there was some song, or insight, that I wanted to have at my fingertips.

I write with tears in my eyes, as I contemplate the death Sunday morning of Debbie Friedman, even as we all know that her music will live forever.

I write with tears in my eyes, as I contemplate the death Sunday morning of Debbie Friedman, even as we all know that her music will live forever.

Having grown up "Conservadox," I came to Debbie Friedman's music later in life.

I will continue to listen to her music, and sing along...she brought music and spirituality to prayer and she will live on.

I am adding my voice to those who mourn the passing of this fixture of modern Jewish music. I don't expect to offer any new insights into who she was, and I certainly don't expect to say anything new given the outpouring of love from all corners of the world.

Her music was spiritual and stirring.

Singer Debbie Friedman helped me find something I often lacked during childhood and young adulthood. She helped me discover a love for my faith and the beauty and meaning of many prayers.

When my son, Daniel was recovering from his second bone marrow transplant, people all over the world were singing Debbie's misheberach formhim.

I grew up in Houston at Congregation Emanu El. I grew up on Debbie's music.

I met Debbie at Henry S. Jacobs Camp in 1978, and I was inspired by her.

I was reading all the tributes from Rabbis and Cantors and those esteemed among us, and I was feeling a bit empty. How does an ordinary 50 something Jewish woman who sang with Debbie in her teens write about this loss? and then i was saved by my daughter's Facebook post:

Debbie's music pulled your heart in and allowed room for prayer and joy.

I knew Debbie Friedman's music long before I came to work for the Reform Movement, and long before I knew Debbie.

My connection to and love for Judaism started with music -- Debbie's music.

Debbie Friedman fanned the flame of my Judaism.

Our family was so lucky to have Debbie as a friend, mentor and teacher.

Debbie Friedman's music is the sound of my youth. I can not hear her songs and not feel myself to be a teenager at Jewish summer camp. Her death feels like a personal loss although I never met her.

Last year, Debbie taught a series of classes on Hanukah at my synagogue, Central Synagogue in NYC.

You made a difference for more than i can begin to count.

So many of us have followed the work and life of Debbie Friedman, and been enriched by her remarkable artistry and her tireless efforts to inspire and be a source of healing amongst us. Now that she is gone, I find myself sharing many thoughts and feelings that recall the time following the passing of Mary Travers -- occasioning a huge change in my life, of course, with a mourning process, ongoing.

Debbie Friedman, introduced a new way to pray to so many people.

Debbie's impact on my life and consequently on my rabbinate was transformative. I first heard her music in the 90's when she came to our temple to do a concert.

THE SONG YOU GAVE WAS YOU
In Memory of Debbie Friedman
Music & Lyrics by Andy Bossov, 1/9/11

A "nachson" of our generation has left us. Debbie Friedman, my friend since our youth, led us with her heart, expressed through her music. She shared her soul on all things Jewish. In Lechi Lach, she gave us a modern way to sing our Zionism.

This week closes with Shabbat Shira, named for the "Song of the Sea." At the end of these verses, Miriam the Prophet lifted her timbrel and led the women in song and dance. For centuries these particular words were unsung. Then along came Debbie Friedman. Her music raised them to God and changed us forever.

Dear BCC friends,

Many of you have already heard the sad news that Debbie Friedman has died, after a brief illness.

Debbie Friedman was an extraordinary treasure of our Movement, and one of its most influential voices.

If you want to feel the pulse of a camp community you have only to stand in the chadar ochel - the dining room - when a whole camp sings together. When the community is strong and spirited, the ruach - spirit - of a song session is transcendent and contagious. When a community is in need of repair, a skilled song leader can use the power of music and singing to mend what is broken.

Debbie Friedman has died this week and I must say that it has shaken me quite a bit. I didn't know her well at all, unlike so many others. But I have been singing her songs and praying with her melodies since I was a little boy. I didn't realize that my childhood bedtime lullabies were actually NFTY melodies for shacharit (the evening service), some of which Debbie wrote. She was an innovator.

In the summer of 1971, a "wet behind the ears" assistant rabbi from Portland Oregon was invited to spend two weeks at Camp Swig, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations camp in Saratoga, California. The purpose was to serve on the faculty and better connect with students from Congregation Beth Israel whose families sent their children to the camp for Jewish enrichment and fun.

n November 1995, I attended the UAHC Biennial Convention in Atlanta and stayed with our close family friends, the Borths. Their granddaughter had recently been born and was in NICU, if I remember correctly, with heart issues. I visited her in the hospital and then went on to the convention, where in a worship service with thousands of other Reform Jews, I sang Debbie Friedman's Mi Shebeirach, a prayer for healing and cried into the shoulder of a friend.

The poet-laureate of the Jewish people, Chaim Nachman Bialik, once wrote a poem in which he extolled someone who died "before his time and before anyone's time. He had one more song to sing, but now that song is stilled forever."

Debbie Friedman (1952 - 2011) was a musical instrument in the hands of God. With creativity and singularity of purpose, she answered with the melody of her life to the touch of God's hands. We all feel terribly bereft to say farewell to the voice of a Jewish generation but greater than our grief is our gratitude because we have heard the melody.

She was, quite simply, a miracle.

Composer, Jewish liturgist,
singer-songwriter, prayer leader extraordinaire, member of the lgbt
community--Debbie touched our lives in ways too many to count.

Abraham Joshua Heschel said that there are three ways to mourn: the first is to weep, the second is to grow silent, the third is to transform sorrow into song.

Like so many, I felt the strong pull towards my congregation this week for Shabbat after learning of Debbie's death, particularly since it is Shabbat Shira.

To understand the depth of the grief sweeping across the Jewish community, one might recall the profound sense of loss that permeated our world upon the news of the death of John Lennon. When Lennon died, the world lost one of the greats - a singer, composer, poet, visionary, and serene commentator on the excesses of his world. Similarly, Debbie's death removes from our midst one of gedolei hador (the great of the generation).

Phyllis and I first met Debbie before she was Debbie Friedman.

Debbie has always been a presence in my life. Even before I met her in person at OSRUI in 1991, her music had a deep impact on my connection to prayer and Jewish life.

Whether or not the name of Debbie Friedman is familiar to you, you have undoubtedly heard (and probably sung) her music. For the last twenty-five years or more, she has been the most outstanding composer and performer of contemporary American Jewish synagogue music. Sadly, she died today, in her late 50's, after a bout with pneumonia, and after many years of serious health challenges.

Debbie Friedman wasn't the first cosmic Jewish force I'd encountered, but she certainly had the longest lasting and the deepest impact of any.

My father, Rabbi Richard J. Sobel, z"l, was an early fan of Debbie's from the time she was a young song-leader as a teen-ager.

The news of Debbie Friedman's passing has hit all of us.

We have lost one of the crown jewels of Judiasm.

Debbie was the beginning of my healing from a horrible divorce.

My heart is heavy.

I knew Debbie my whole life and had the opportunity to perform some concerts with her through the years.

The music of Debbie brought my husband and I to the Temple.

As a violinist & Jewish Musicologist (University of CA, MA 1987), I remember meeting Debbie and talking with her about her craft.

Dear Debbie, As a 1980's teen, your music gave me an entry-point to Judaism through a mode I could innately understand and use.

The most recognizable voice in Jewish music. She helped children and adults connect with their faiths.

The Mishaberach was not in the classic Reform service in my memory.

She made me want to sing and brought joy to our lives.

Debbie Friedman z"l wrote about the youth seeing visions and the old dreaming dreams, but she was the voice,heart and soul of the Reform movement and her music&words are a rich legacy.

In a country and an era where many people grow up with no real feelings or commitment to their parents' religion, Debbie Friedman's music helped me to grow up feeling connected to something much larger than myself.

Dearest Debbie,

Your incredible and amazing musical gift to the world fills us all with AWE... music overflowing with inspiration, purpose, depth, spirit, spirituality, passion, and life. We just LOVE LOVE LOVE to sing your songs!

The Saul Mirowitz Day School- Reform Jewish Academy Faculty and Students send love to the family of Debbie Friedman.

I was with Debbie at Limmud in England.

Debbie...
I met Debbie for the first time in 1988 at a small CAJE conference in San Diego, small because CAJE had held their conference that year in Israel.

I had the honor of being a member of Shir Chadash the New Reform Congregation when Debbie Friedman was the Cantor.