Julia Blum

Last updated

Julia Blum
Birth nameJulia Anne Blum
Born1967
Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Genres Jewish music, folk, soul
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter, record producer, actress
Instrument(s)Vocals, piano
Years active1990–present
LabelsFirefly

Julia Anne Blum (born 1967, Beverly Hills, California) is an American Orthodox Jewish singer, songwriter, actress, and speaker. A baalat teshuva , Blum studied music and theater at Harvard and Yale and worked with vocal coach Seth Riggs before becoming Orthodox in the late 1980s. She has released two albums, Stand Tall (1990) and Songs of the Heart (1998), and has toured throughout the United States, Canada and overseas. [1]

Contents

Biography

Early life

Blum grew up in Beverly Hills, California. Her mother, Cynthia, is an elementary school teacher, while her father, Frederick, is an insurance executive. During Julia's childhood, the family attended a Conservative synagogue and celebrated the major Jewish holidays, and Julia received a bat mitzvah. [2] [3]

The young Blum took piano and ballet lessons from an early age and began acting and singing professionally at age 12, appearing in commercials and studying under noted voice coach Seth Riggs. [2] [3] She attended Beverly Hills High School, where she was a regular fixture in school productions. [2]

She studied music and theater at Harvard and Yale University. At Yale, she was often cast in graduate school performances despite being an undergraduate student. [2] [3]

Turn to Orthodoxy and career in Jewish music

After graduating cum laude with distinction from Yale in 1988, Blum traveled abroad to Europe, Greece, and Israel. In the latter country, Blum, curious about her heritage, studied at an Orthodox women's yeshiva in Jerusalem, where she read biblical Hebrew texts, visited religious families, and kept Shabbat. The experience endeared her to Orthodoxy and inspired her to become a baalat teshuva . [2]

Upon returning to the United States, Blum began writing and performing original music inspired by her newfound faith. She has released two albums, Stand Tall (1990) and Songs of the Heart (1998), the latter of which she co-produced with Ted Perlman and Dick Winograde. She currently tours several times a year, selling copies of her CDs at shows and talking about her spiritual journey in between songs. [1] [3]

Other activities

Blum was co-founder and academic director of the Beverly Hills Tutoring Center. [2] [3] [4]

Artistry

Blum has been cited as a role model for artistic expression among Orthodox women and baalei teshuva, as she adheres to the rabbinic prohibition of kol isha by performing only for other women. [1] [5] Her music has been played by Michele Garner, the "Rockin' Rebbetzin" on her program The Kol Isha Show on WSIA. [6]

Blum primarily sings in English with occasional Hebrew verses, including selections from Psalms. She also sings in French on the title song from Songs of the Heart. Her lyrical topics include family relationships ("Hey Little Sister"), her struggles with becoming religious ("Smelling Roses", "Longing for the Longing"), and the temporary nature of fame ("Greatness", "Price You Pay").

Discography

Albums

Other

Filmography

Related Research Articles

The Kaddish, also transliterated as Qaddish or Qadish, is a hymn praising God that is recited during Jewish prayer services. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name. In the liturgy, different versions of the Kaddish are functionally chanted or sung as separators of the different sections of the service.

In Judaism, a ba'al teshuvah is a Jew who adopts some form of traditional religious observance after having previously followed a secular lifestyle or a less frum form of Judaism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dana International</span> Israeli singer

Sharon Cohen, professionally known as Dana International, is an Israeli pop singer. She has released eight albums and three additional compilation albums. She was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 in Birmingham with the song "Diva".

Tzniut describes the character trait of modesty and discretion, as well as a group of Jewish laws pertaining to conduct. The concept is most important within Orthodox Judaism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yossi Green</span> Composer of contemporary Jewish religious music

Yossi Green is a Hasidic Jewish composer of contemporary Jewish religious music. As of 2013 he had written more than 700 melodies in the genres of pop music, classical music, liturgical music, Hasidic music, and show tunes. His songs have appeared on more than 120 albums and CDs. His clients include most of the superstars of the Orthodox Jewish music world. He has released four greatest hits albums titled Shades of Green, and a solo album, The 8th Note. He regularly performs at charity benefits accompanied by popular Jewish singers under the rubric "Yossi Green & Friends".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esther Jungreis</span> Holocaust survivor, author and a religious public speaker

Esther Jungreis was a Jewish, Hungarian-born, American author, and public speaker. She was the founder of the international Hineni organization in the United States. A Holocaust survivor and rebbetzin, she worked to return secular Jews to Orthodox Judaism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shuli Rand</span> Israeli film actor, writer, and singer (born 1962)

Shalom "Shuli" Rand is an Israeli film actor, writer, and singer. He is a Breslover Hasid and is best known in the English-speaking world for his role as the protagonist in Ushpizin (2004), for which he wrote the screenplay.

For the purposes of this article, “contemporary” refers to the period from 1967 to the present day, “Jewish” refers to the various streams and traits of Judaism practiced. Many Orthodox Jews use the term “religious” to refer to a strict adherence to Jewish law. For the purposes of this article, “religious” refers to the content and context of the music itself: liturgical or implicit references to the divine.

Elizabeth Schwartz is an American vocalist, concentrating on klezmer music and the Romanian Yiddish dialect. She primarily records with her husband Yale Strom and Hot Pstromi but has collaborated in performance and recordings with notable musicians from the jazz and folk music worlds, notably Muzsikas, Damian Draghici, Alicia Svigals, Salman Ahmad, Marta Sebestyen and others. The subject of Romanian filmmaker Radu Gabrea's documentary film, Searching for Schwartz (2007), she was also featured in his previous documentaries "Goldfadn's Legacy" and "Romania, Romania". She also recorded music for the soundtrack of L'Chayim, Comrade Stalin!, a documentary film directed by her husband and frequent collaborator Strom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benny Friedman (singer)</span> American Jewish singer (born 1984)

Benzion HakohenFriedman is an American Hasidic Jewish singer and a non-pulpit rabbi. Professionally trained in voice, he rose to prominence on the Orthodox pop scene with his first album in 2009. Singing mainly in Hebrew, Friedman tours extensively and also appears in music videos. He views his music as a shlichus (outreach) tool, with the goal of drawing Jews closer to Judaism.

The Diaspora Yeshiva Band was an American-Israeli Orthodox Jewish rock band founded at the Diaspora Yeshiva on Mount Zion, Jerusalem, by baal teshuva students from the United States. In existence from 1975 to 1983, the band infused rock and bluegrass music with Jewish lyrics, creating a style of music it called "Chassidic rock" or "Country and Eastern". The band had an international following, having become famous after winning three Israel Chassidic Festivals, in 1977, 1978, and 1980 and produced many hit songs. They were very popular with Jewish Youth Groups and tourists in the early to mid-1980s, and became very well known in Jerusalem for their Saturday-night concerts at King David Tomb. DYB had a considerable influence on contemporary Jewish religious music, inspiring later bands such as Blue Fringe, 8th Day, Reva L'Sheva, Soulfarm, the Moshav Band, and Shlock Rock. Fifteen years after it disbanded, band leader Avraham Rosenblum revived the band under the name Avraham Rosenblum & Diaspora and produced several more albums.

Rinat Gutman is an Israeli Orthodox Jewish rapper, singer, and songwriter. One of the first religious female rappers in Israel, she has also performed in the United States, England, and India, and has appeared with artists like Y-Love, Kosha Dillz, and Roi Levi of Shotei Hanevuah.

Kineret Sarah Cohen is an Israeli-American Orthodox Jewish singer, songwriter, producer, rebbetzin, and lecturer. She has released nine musical albums since 1998 and has been noted as an established performer of Jewish music for women only alongside artists like Ruthi Navon and Julia Blum. She is also known for her Torah lectures, motivational speeches, and weekly newsletters.

Ruthi Navon Zmora is an Israeli Jewish singer and actress. She first came to prominence in the 1970s with her role in the Broadway musical Don't Step on My Olive Branch and her self-titled debut album, which sold well in her home country. After becoming religious through Chabad, she began a new career in the 1980s as a religious Jewish singer, beginning with the album Lead Me to Your Way (1988), which was marked "For Women Only" in accordance with kol isha. She has toured throughout the United States, Europe, and South Africa.

Shaindel Antelis is an American Orthodox Jewish singer-songwriter and actress. She has released four studio albums and has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel.

Miriam Leah Gamliel is an American Orthodox Jewish actress, singer, and activist. A baalat teshuva with a background in musical theatre, she is the founder of the Arts and Torah Association for Religious Artists (ATARA), an organization promoting Orthodox women in the arts. In 2012, she was named one of The Jewish Week's "36 Under 36", a list of influential Jewish figures under age 36.

Robin Saex Garbose is an American filmmaker and theatre director. Following an early career directing several off-Broadway plays and episodes of the shows Head of the Class and America's Most Wanted, Garbose embraced Orthodox Judaism and founded the Kol Neshama Performing Arts Conservatory, a summer camp and arts conservatory providing an artistic outlet for teenage Orthodox girls. With Kol Neshama, she has produced several projects, including the films A Light at Greytowers (2007), The Heart That Sings (2011), and Operation: Candlelight (2014). Her projects have been screened at the Museum of Tolerance, the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Cinematheques, and the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.

Amy Gordon Guterson is an American Orthodox Jewish actress, filmmaker, and educator. She is best known for her role as Chaya Epstein in the long-running video series Agent Emes. She is the founder and director of the Tzohar Seminary for Chassidus and the Arts and co-founder of the Jewish women's theater troupe Kol Isha. She is also a board member of the Arts and Torah Association for Religious Artists (ATARA), founded by Miriam Leah Droz.

Miriam Sandler is an American singer and dancer. She was a prolific backup singer during the 1990s for Latin pop artists like Jon Secada and Gloria Estefan before becoming a baalas teshuva. As a religious singer, she released her debut solo album, The Solution, in 2008.

Perl Wolfe is an American Hasidic singer and songwriter. She is best known as the lead vocalist and keyboardist of the now-defunct alternative rock band Bulletproof Stockings, which received media attention for performing at several major music venues for all-female audiences, in accordance with kol isha. In 2015, she was included in The Jewish Week's "36 Under 36", an annual list of influential Jews under age 36. She currently leads the band PERL.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Roslyn Dickens (2006). "A Melody of Their Own: Orthodox Women and the Performing Arts" (PDF). Jewish Action . Orthodox Union.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Andrea Heiman (2 February 1997). "Back To Basics". Los Angeles Times . pp. 6–8.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Evening of music and inspiration coming to Hampton Roads". Jewish News (Virginia). 23 August 2002. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  4. "About Us". Beverly Hills Tutoring Center. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  5. Aiken, Lisa (2009). The Baal Teshuva Survival Guide. Rossi Publications. p. 356.
  6. "Rockin' Rebbetzin – The Kol Isha Show". CD Baby.