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Let my People Go! A Jewish and African-American Celebration of Freedom

The experiences that led to this ritual began on a basketball court with teammates Reggie Harris and Jonathan Kligler, an African-American musician=educator and a European-American student rabbi. Their friendship moved beyond basketball into conversations about music, family, religion, politics, and almost inevitably, African-American and Jewish community relations in the United States. As the friendship grew, the daily round of news reported stories of miscommunication, mistrust, hateful speech, killing actions, and the dissolution of many long-standing civil rights alliances between African Americans and Jews. Reggie and Jonathan, with trust and trepidation, waded into the troubled waters of interracial and interfaith conversation. Their deepening friendship eventually included Jonathan’s family and me. And when Jonathan accepted a rabbinical appointment at the Woodstock, New York, Jewish Congregation, Kehillat Lev Shalem, he invited Reggie and me, who are professional musicians and teachers specializing in singing underground railroad and civil rights freedom songs, to lead music for Sabbath services several times a year. Reggie and I also began to celebrate Passover with Jonathan’s family and with the synagogue community. We sang a number of African-American spirituals and freedom songs as a regular part of this celebration; they are included in the published Passover Haggadah used by this community and by many others. At Kehillat Lev Shalem the spiritual, ‘‘Go Down Moses,’’ is a particular favorite, along with ‘‘Wade in the Water,’’ ‘‘O Freedom,’’ and ‘‘Oh Mary Don’t You Weep.’’ Despite difficulties between African-American and Jewish communities, it became clear to Reggie and me that there are Jewish Americans who still feel a strong connection to African-American struggles for freedom through the spirituals, freedom songs, and stories of the civil rights movement. The experience of celebrating Passover together soon led Reggie, Jonathan, and me to perform freedom songs from our traditions together in