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

This study, part of a series on American music in the early 21st century, examines music as a defining component of Jewish identity and affiliation. Summit, rabbi, director of the Hillel Foundation and associate professor of music at Tufts University, considers five ""worship communities"" from among Boston's 114 congregations: one each from the modern Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Hasidic movements, and a Jewish renewal havurah. He examines the Friday night service, particularly one prayer, ""Lekhah dodi,"" which welcomes the Sabbath, in numerous settings influenced by everything from rock and roll to Sufi chants. The power of singing together, agree the congregants he quotes anonymously, allows them to ""hear and feel what it means to blend voice and breath, to create, though only temporarily, a transcendent community of palpable beauty and harmony."" Unfortunately, that inspired sense comes through only intermittently in Summit's smorgasbord of interviews and detailed references to melodies that may be unfamiliar to readers, although some are noted in the text and available in accompanying recordings (not heard by PW). Summit's intention to study not only the music but also the men and women who make it is muddled by repetitious sentiments that fail to create living portraits of individuals. (Sept.)