A Place to Belong: Debbie Friedman Sings Her Way Home

by Deborah Lakritz, Julie Castano (Illustrator)

Overview

How Debbie Friedman became one of Judaism’s best-known singer/songwriters. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681156101
Publisher:	Behrman House, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/06/2022
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

Read an Excerpt

Debbie waits beside gleaming candlesticks. Bubbie and Zayde hurry downstairs. Aunts, uncles, and cousins arrive just in time.

Hiss goes Bubbie’s match as it touches flickering flame to candles. Debbie snuggles close. They whisper the blessing together.

“Good Shabbos!”

The room overflows with chatter. Hugs. The heavenly smell of Mother’s brisket. Laughter at Debbie’s jokes and comical expressions.

And joy, always, at her sweet singing.

Debbie’s Jewish life in Utica, New York, is full. This is where she belongs.

But Father wants a change. One day he announces, “We’re moving to Minnesota. To a new life!” Debbie clings to Bubbie. She doesn’t want to go.

Saint Paul is lonely. No laughing with aunts, uncles, and cousins. No lighting candles with Bubbie. Debbie wonders, Will I ever belong?

Interviews

We’ve all had the experience of creating something new and uniquely ours. The spark of an idea may become a painting full of lively colors. A magical story. A dance full of twirls and sways. A towering structure made of Legos. 

“I must do this!” the spark says to you.  

But where does this spark come from? 

Our creativity begins deep inside us. Our ideas grow from a mixture of everything we experience in our lives: the love we give and receive, our memories, the beauty of nature, our everyday activities, and a bit of the unknown. 

Sometimes our creativity can even come from sadness, or a wish for things to change. 

Debbie Friedman’s music came from many places: her joy in being Jewish, the warmth she felt in singing with others, and a loneliness she yearned to fill. She often said her musical talent and creativity were gifts, blessings she was forever grateful to have received and, more importantly, to share. 

When Debbie shared her talents, first with her own community and then with the greater Jewish world, she opened up a sacred space—a place where others felt like they finally belonged and a place Debbie had been searching for too. 

What are your gifts? 

How can you use your creativity to bring joy and meaning into your life and the lives of those around you?  

I invite you to honor this holy part of yourself and share it with others! 

 

Wishing you sparks, 

Deborah 

Editorial Reviews

2022-09-28
An impassioned musician shared her talents globally.

Jewish singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman (1951-2011) loved music and her faith. When she was a child, her family moved from upstate New York to St. Paul, Minnesota, where she felt adrift before enrolling in Hebrew school. Deeply religious, she found solace in prayers and rituals. Later, working at a Jewish summer camp, she found comfort in music and grew to love the popular folksongs of the 1960s. Yearning to play guitar, Friedman worked hard to earn money to buy her own instrument. As a skilled guitarist, she led singalongs at Jewish youth group meetings and synagogues around the United States. Friedman wished to emphasize Jewish music at her concerts to help Jews connect, spiritually and musically. She began to compose songs, setting English translations of Hebrew prayers to her original tunes. Shortly after writing her first song, she introduced it to a youth group, and the teens wholly embraced it. Eventually, the author avers, Friedman’s religious songs brought Jews of all ages and levels of spirituality together. Friedman’s story should be more widely known. However, this book, written in present tense, is superficial, though her passion comes across. The illustrations are colorful but otherwise undistinguished and static. There is no glossary or pronunciation guide, which would have helped with some Yiddish and Hebrew words. This volume will be best appreciated in Jewish-school and synagogue-library collections. Friedman and her family present White; background characters are diverse in terms of age and race. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A niche offering. (author’s note) (Picture-book biography. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews