Jews, even this generation of Reform Jews, have a difficult time with synagogue songs/hymns in English. Probably the most famous of these is sung on the afternoon of Yom Kippur. “All the World Shall Come to Serve You” is THE song, par excellence, of our movement’s vision of a messianic era we all hope for. When I re-introduced it to the “congregation” of Over-50 communities I served for seven High Holydays they felt it was “goyish” and didn’t wan’t to hear it, let alone sing it. I gave a sermonic explanation of it; nevertheless, they said, “It’s in English so it can’t be Jewish!”
N O N S E N S E !
We sing Hebrew melodies, yet we often cannot translate one word of it. The melodies are often taken from German drinking songs (Eyn Keloheinu, as an example), and the words far too often do not reflect Reform/liberal theology. But they’re in Hebrew so they must be ok. I know how important the melody is for congregational singing, but sometimes we must pay attention to the meaning of the words.
It’s true that our Reform forbears composed synagogue songs that were in English and truly sounded “churchy.” That’s because our early Reform music directors weren’t Jewish, and if they were also church music directors, they were most familiar with that kind of hymn (it has to do with major vs minor key, but I don’t know music terminology, so I won’t continue that thought). They might have used churchy sounding melodies, but the content of their hymns/songs were rooted in solid Jewish tradition.
Our Reform grandparents and great-grandparents were very comfortable with that sound. Once, however, former “Conservadox” Jews affiliated with our congregations and gained influence on Boards and committees, the Reform sound was replaced with the music with which they were accustomed. Interestingly, Eyn Keloheinu itself had a Reform melody – similar, very similar, to what we hear today – which has been replaced with that “today” melody to which I refer. Why? Because “they” had heard it in their shuls and imported it into their new Temples, believing that minuscule difference sounded more Jewish.
But songs in English??!! Chas v’chalilah!! A true curse on our heads! No such melodies should be heard in synagogues! (one exception which comes to mind is Rock of Ages, the Chanukah version, obviously not the Christian one.) OK, so we don’t understand a word of some Hebrew melodies, but just as the kids on the Dick Clark American Bandstand television show used to say when asked about a brand-new Rock & Roll song, “You can dance to it, “so do we say, “You can just feel the Yiddisheh neshomeh, the Jewish soul, of it, and you can sing it.”
I understand the emotional nature of this response, but I believe it has closed us off to some powerful additions to worship in the vernacular that might indeed stir us more. I mean, after all, we still have English prayers we employ, right? But even there some congregations in our movement are inching/running more and more to a larger dose of Hebrew.