Rocking the synagogue

Seven years ago, Rick Recht was giving a guitar lesson to the director of a Jewish summer camp when his student offered him a job.

At the time, Recht, who had fallen out of touch with his Jewish roots, was playing in a rock band and living in a bus. After some persuasion, he agreed to work for the camp, where he fell in love with the familiar Jewish songs from his childhood.

“It was sort of an accident,” Recht says. “But I was really turned on by the type of interaction that goes on with Jewish music. So, I gave notice to my band, and that’s how it all started.”

Today, Recht, a St. Louis native, is a household name among fans of Jewish rock music, a genre that has grown rapidly in the last few years. Recht’s musical inspiration extends from his background in secular rock, which he retools to incorporate Jewish themes and messages. He has booked hundreds of concerts at camps and synagogues across the country.

Angela Gold, a Jewish musician who worked with Recht in St. Louis, describes Recht’s music as upbeat and easy to sing along with. “People of all ages are very inspired by him because they like his music, his energy, and they think he’s cool,” Gold says.

Recht simply wants to reach as many people as he can. “My goal is to make Judaism relevant in a contemporary sense, to make it cool, and to create a space where youth and adults can see themselves participating in Jewishly,” he says.

Recht and other Jewish rock musicians are the beneficiaries of a musical style that, while barely existent in the ’90s, has flourished. Andrew Curry, a cantorial soloist at Congregation Beth Shalom and a Jewish musician, noted that merging rock music with Jewish doctrine is a natural cultural outgrowth.

“Rock music in general is the prevailing genre in America,” Curry says. “In every decade of the 20th century, there has been Jewish music and a lot of Jewish performers and musicians. That music has changed as the American culture has changed.”

Shira Berkowitz, a member of the Jewish Student Organization at MU and a musician who trained under Recht, says Jewish rock has become more popular because it targets kids and teenagers whose parents welcome music that explores their religious values. More and more synagogues across the country are holding services in the style of rock concerts to keep Jewish youth interested in the faith.

“It’s always been a thing not to play religious instruments on the Sabbath,” Berkowitz says. “But recently, people started thinking about it other ways, as enhancing the services, or bringing a bigger sense of spirituality as melodies become easier to sing along with.”

A decade ago, older and younger Jews disagreed over the need to introduce secular-style music into the synagogue and other religious spaces, Berkowitz says. That generational conflict has faded, and Recht says his music has been welcomed as important to the future of Judaism in America.

“For the most part, it’s become relatively undeniable how powerful Jewish rock is to inform Jewish youth,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what denomination.”

Richard Reuben, a law professor at MU and a member of Congregation Beth Shalom, brought his wife and two sons to see Recht perform in Columbia recently. He says he has no problems with the contemporary feel of Recht’s music. “Like all things eternal, the practice has to evolve and adapt to the times,” he says. “The big thing is that this kind of music makes Judaism come alive for kids.”

Indeed, after the concert, Columbia first-grader Rachel Perkins, a member of Congregation Beth Shalom, shyly approached Recht to let him know that she loves his music, saying: “You sound better than Hilary Duff.”

Music has always been an important aspect of Judaism, says Rabbi Yossi Feintuch of Congregation Beth Shalom. Flipping though a worn, leather-bound book of Psalms, Feintuch stops at Psalm 23 and reads aloud, “Sing a new song unto God.”

“So you see,” he says, “music and singing and instruments are part and parcel of the correct way to come together before God in celebration.”

Feintuch has tried to incorporate more contemporary music into his services, although he admits that it is difficult at times.

“I don’t know if there’s any commandment against rock,” he says. “I can only sing praise for any type of music that excites the soul. If it is to be rock, let it be. Some people like the additions, and some are afraid of it, and they want to stay with what they know or are used to. But without (Jewish rock), many youngsters would not be touched by Jewish themes.”

Recht says he performs “almost exclusively” for Jewish audiences, although many of the themes in his music are not unique to Judaism. One of his songs, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” was originally an African national anthem, but the lyrics can resonate with both Christians and Jews, he says.

Perhaps the best example of the universality of Recht’s music is his band. The other members of Recht’s trio — drummer Dennis Stringfield and bassist Logan Detering — are not Jewish, yet they enjoy playing the music because of its broad appeal.

“It makes sense to them,” Recht says. “They are a litmus test to see if our music works.”

Stringfield and Detering joke that they have been to more synagogues and have attended more services than most Jews have in their lives, but they love performing Recht’s songs.

Stringfield says that he hopes Jewish rock will someday gain the same popularity that Christian rock has. “I hope to see it on the radio, I hope to see it in the Grammys, I hope to see it even have its own award show like Christian rock has,” he says.

Yet, even Recht’s biggest fans doubt that Jewish rock will ever become as big as Christian rock, which generates more than $500 million a year in ticket and record sales. One reason is that many of the lyrics of Jewish rock are in Hebrew. Even so, Jewish rock can be found on the Internet and in bookstores and retail outlets.

“Hopefully, eventually, Jewish rock will be a very widely known genre of music,” Berkowitz says. “But its strength will remain in the Jewish community, because that’s where it originates.”