The Lord's Song in a Strange Land: Music and Identity in Contemporary Jewish Worship

by Jeffrey, A. Summit

Across the United States, Jews come together every week to sing and pray in a wide variety of worship communities. Through this music, made by and for ordinary folk, these worshippers define and re-define their relationship to the continuity of Jewish tradition and the realities of American life. Combining oral history with an analysis of recordings, The Lord's Song in a Strange Land examines this tradition incontemporary Jewish worship and explores the diverse links between the music and both spiritual and cultural identities. Alive with detail, the book focuses on metropolitan Boston and covers the full range of Jewish communities there, from Hasidim to Jewish college students in a transdenominational setting. It documents a remarkably fluid musical tradition, where melodies are often shared, where sources can be as as diverse as Sufi chant, Christmas carols, rock and roll, and Israeli popular music, and where the meaning of a song can change from one block to the next.

203 pages, Paperback

First published March 27, 2003

Reviews

[FL · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book illuminates a lot of what I think Americans take for granted about relating tradition and modernity. The bulk of the book is dedicated to a comparison of five synagogues and how they approach the same prayer, with interwoven connections to different aspects of Jewish life. But it's less clear why it matters for him that he's looking at Judaism, or music, rather than just American prayer---but the author is a rabbi, so it's likely simply what he knows best.