Fixing the Broken Hallelujah: The Jewish Music of Leonard Cohen

As we approach Leonard Cohen’s tenth yahrzeit, it’s time to listen again to the distinctly Jewish voice at the heart of his music. Many listeners know Cohen through “Hallelujah,” but that song is only one expression of the deep Jewish currents running through his work: biblical stories, liturgical echoes, Jewish memory, and a lifelong wrestling with God.

Join Rabbi Jeff Salkin, award-winning columnist, podcaster, and author of a forthcoming book on the Jewish voice in rock music, as we listen closely to Cohen’s songs and study the Jewish texts and traditions that reverberate through them. Together, we’ll discover how Cohen transformed ancient sources and enduring Jewish questions into music that reached far beyond the Jewish world.

Jeff invites us to hear Leonard Cohen as a modern-day paytan, a Jewish liturgical poet whose sacred poetry found its way onto records, radios, and concert stages. Come listen again to familiar songs and discover the Jewish texts, ideas, and questions that have been there all along.

We strive to ensure access and meaningful participation by all. As such, this program will have closed captioning.

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Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin is an acclaimed writer, author, and commentator on Jewish life and American public culture. His award-winning Religion News Service column, “Martini Judaism: For Those Who Want to be Shaken and Stirred,” also anchors an award-winning podcast. A frequent media voice, he has offered political and religious commentary on CNN and the BBC. He is the author of twelve books, and his essays have appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, Tablet, and the Forward. He is also the co-founder and co-director, with Melton faculty Dr. Sandra Lilienthal, of Wisdom Without Walls, an online salon for Jewish ideas.

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