Debbie Friedman
Jewish American musician (1951-2011)
Deborah Lynn Friedman (February 23, 1951 – January 9, 2011) was an American singer-songwriter of religious Jewish music. She was an early pioneer of gender-sensitive language: using the feminine forms of the Divine or altering masculine-only text references in the Jewish Liturgy to include feminine language.
She is best known for her setting of "Mi Shebeirach" the prayer for Healing. Her songs are used in Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jewish congregations.
Career
Friedman wrote many of her early songs as a song leader at the overnight camp Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, in the early 1970s. Between 1971 and 2010, she recorded 22 albums. Her work was inspired by such diverse sources as Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary and a number of other folk music artists. Friedman employed both English and Hebrew lyrics and wrote for all ages. Some of her songs are "The Aleph Bet Song", "Miriam's Song", and the songs "Not By Might" and "I Am A Latke". She also performed in synagogues and concert halls.
“Debbie Friedman” enters the record as jewish American musician (1951-2011). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Debbie, Friedman and Jewish can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2895942. VIAF identifies the subject as 55834105. The Library of Congress control number is n93119718. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1951, 2011, 1971 and 2010.
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This entry incorporates text from “Debbie Friedman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.