This Is Your Song Too: Phish and Contemporary Jewish Identity

Kroll-Zeldin, an assistant professor of Jewish studies at the University of San Francisco, and Werden-Greenfield, associate director of Temple University’s Meyer and Rosaline Feinstein Center for American Jewish History, debut with an often underwhelming essay and interview collection that aims to probe “the myriad connections between Phish and Judaism.” Among the highlights is an interview with Phish bassist Mike Gordon, who often chafed against the ritualistic Judaism of his childhood. He says that “religious and transcendent experiences” shaped his rock music, however, and led him to add the high holiday prayer Avinu Malkenu to the band’s concert repertoire, though he was inspired by the melody and not its liturgical content. Elsewhere, contributors discuss the sense of community they derive from being “phans” or attending performances with coreligionists, some of whom arrange for kosher food or pray beforehand. Unfortunately, the more enlightening entries—including Caroline Rothstein’s “I’ve Been Wading in the Whitest Sea,” which tangles with the loaded social implications of “blending in” as a Jew among the “overwhelmingly white” Phish fan scene—are overshadowed by essays riddled with banal observations, repetition, and overblown claims (Rabbi Jessy Dressin likens attending a Phish show to making “a pilgrimage to Jerusalem when the Temple was standing”). Die-hard phans may enjoy themselves, but everyone else should skip. (Sept.)