Bluegrass and the Bimah
For John Denver, Take Me Home Country Roads may conjure up the soulful skies
and majestic mountains of Colorado.
Bruce Adler's country roads lead him to the soul.
Adler - Rabbi Adler, that is - has joined with his wife, Rabbi Donna Adler,
to bring home the musical message of spirituality and redemption.
It's the medium they have chosen that has them beaming at the bimah.
The Adlers are "kosher kountry," choosing Torah over the temptations
that other country singers seem drawn to like a mosquito is drawn to a bayou.
The country-singing couple - he's religious leader of Congregation B'nai
Tikvah, Ohio, she teaches in the religious school, sing the praises of God
and Judaism on many of their albums.
Why choose country?
"My music is positive and clean," Bruce Adler says, "and
has similarities to Christian country, but since I'm Jewish, that wouldn't
really be an accurate description. I've heard some people refer to it as
Jewish gospel."
As a rabbi," says Adler, who was ordained by the Reconstructionist
Rabbincial College in 1983, "my songs are kosher. They express reverence
for God, committment to Torah and the need for repsonsible moral living."
The Adlers' albums have sold well - Walk Humbly With
Thy God, If It Be Thy Will, I
Choose Torah, Eternally Hopeful, and Incredible
Journey have attracted a diverse audience, thanks to versions of their
work done by secular artists in the folk and bluegrass field.
"A lot of my songs have universal themes," notes the recording
rabbi.
Bruce Adler writes the songs the whole world sings - well, at least part
of the world - and Donna Adler chimes with the vocals.
"Donna likes the sweet songs," says her husband, who is more attuned
to traditional country/bluegrass style.
"So far as I know, I'm the only rabbi in the United States, probably
in any country, who does Jewish bluegrass," says this fiddler on record.
Support from congregation
The Adlers' congregants seem to get a kick out of their country colleagues.
The rabbis have been singing for 20 years and serving their congregation
for more than a decade.
Music and minyans go together, says the Bluegrass Rabbi.
Music may have its siren call, but it's not about to lead the rabbi away
from the bimah. "I would never leave the rabbinate," he says.
By Michael Elkin
To order, call B'nai Tikvah at 1-513-759-5356, the Adlers at 1-513-755-2324,
print out and send in this Order Form,
or E-mail Bruce Adler.
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