NEW YORK (JTA) – A healing service will be held in New York for songwriter Debbie Friedman, who is reportedly in an induced coma in an Orange County, Calif. hospital.
The service will be held Sunday evening at the Manhattan JCC and can be viewed online. Friedman moved to California from New York several months ago.
Friedman, who reportedly was hospitalized with pneumonia, is sedated and on a respirator, according to an email sent Wednesday from the West Coast branch of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. There reportedly had been no change in Friedman’s condition.
The email asked that prayers be said on Friedman’s behalf, as well as for her mother, sister and aunt.
An immensely popular singer and songwriter, Friedman, who is in her late fifties, is widely credited with reinvigorating synagogue music by introducing a more folksy, sing-along style to American congregations. In 2007, she was appointed to the faculty of the Reform movement’s cantorial school in a sign that her style had gained mainstream acceptance.
She is best known for her composition "Mi Shebeirach," a prayer for healing that is sung in many North American congregations.
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