|
|
|
R E S O L U T I O N
|
|
WHEREAS, The great American composer and singer, Deborah Lynn |
|
"Debbie" Friedman, has been credited with creating the genre of |
|
contemporary Jewish worship music; and |
|
WHEREAS, Debbie Friedman composed much of her early music |
|
while residing in Houston, Texas from 1975 to 1984; and |
|
WHEREAS, Her modern settings of traditional Hebrew liturgy |
|
and original compositions are sung by congregants in Reform, |
|
Reconstructionist, Conservative and some Modern Orthodox Jewish |
|
synagogues, as well as in some Christian churches; and |
|
WHEREAS, Debbie Friedman was called "the Joan Baez of Jewish |
|
song," by the Jewish newspaper The Forward and recorded more than 20 |
|
albums, which together sold half a million copies, and her lyrics |
|
have appeared on Hallmark greeting cards; and |
|
WHEREAS, Her "Mi Shebeirach" prayer for healing is used by |
|
hundreds of congregations across America and is a central part of |
|
the Jewish healing movement, and her "Alef Bet Song" has been |
|
performed by Barney, the purple dinosaur and has taught two |
|
generations of Jewish children the Hebrew alphabet; and |
|
WHEREAS, Deborah Lynn "Debbie" Friedman was born in Utica, |
|
New York to Freda and Gabriel Friedman; and |
|
WHEREAS, Debbie moved with her family to Minnesota at age 5, |
|
where she was a 1969 alumna of Highland Park High School in Saint |
|
Paul and a graduate of the after-school Hebrew school program at the |
|
Talmud Torah of St. Paul; and |
|
WHEREAS, She wrote her earliest songs as a song leader at the |
|
overnight camp Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, |
|
Wisconsin and recorded her first album, "Sing Unto God", with the |
|
choir of her former high school in 1972; and |
|
WHEREAS, Rabbi Samuel Karff brought Ms. Friedman to Houston |
|
in 1975, where she taught at Temple Beth Israel and at Congregation |
|
Beth Yeshurun while writing many of her compositions and, |
|
coincidentally, living in the district of Representative Paul |
|
Colbert, who was her Hebrew school classmate for nine years in St. |
|
Paul; and |
|
WHEREAS, after leaving her many friends in Houston, Debbie |
|
Friedman continued to compose and performed her songs in concerts |
|
at venues throughout the world, including her live recordings to |
|
sold-out audiences at Carnegie Hall and the Hotel del Coronado, |
|
despite struggling with a debilitating neurological condition; and |
|
WHEREAS, The story of her music, as well as the challenges she |
|
faced in living with illness, were featured in a 2004 documentary |
|
film called A Journey of Spirit; and |
|
WHEREAS, Ms. Friedman became a teacher at Hebrew Union |
|
College-Jewish Institute of Religion, first in New York and later |
|
in Los Angeles and served on the board of the Academy for Jewish |
|
Religion, CA; and |
|
WHEREAS, Deborah Lynn Friedman succumbed to pneumonia on |
|
January 9, 2011 and her memorial service on the opening day of this |
|
Legislative Session was attended and watched on the internet by |
|
almost ten thousand of her family, friends and admirers; and |
|
WHEREAS, Deborah Lynn Friedman is survived by her mother, |
|
Freda, and her sisters Cheryl Friedman and Barbara Egli; and |
|
WHEREAS, Debbie Friedman's songs, including "Mi Shebeirach", |
|
"L'chi Lach", "Miriam's Song", "Oseh Shalom", "Not By Might", "And |
|
Thou Shalt Love", "The Alef Bet Song", "You Are the One", "This is |
|
the Day" and many, many others have inspired and comforted millions |
|
and will continue to be sung and remembered as a fitting legacy to |
|
this caring and inspiring person; now, therefore, be it |
|
RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas |
|
hereby pay tribute to the life of Deborah Lynn "Debbie" Friedman and |
|
extend sincere sympathy to the members of her family: to her mother, |
|
Freda; to her sisters, Cheryl and Barbara; and to her other |
|
relatives and many friends; and, be it further |
|
RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be |
|
prepared for her family. |