Name: Jonathan Bayer
Age: 41
City: San Francisco
Position: Musician and educator
J.: You majored in Jewish studies at the University of Chicago, but you’re not a formally trained musician. Now you serve as song leader, prayer leader and music teacher for synagogues, Jewish organizations and preschools around the Bay Area. How did your career develop?
Jonathan Bayer: I was always into music, and I was in a band in high school, but I was a Jewish educator first. I was working at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan and running the after-school program for middle-schoolers in 1999. Al Gore was there for a campaign event. They had lined up a nice multicultural swath of kids, but he was super late for the event, and they were like, “Can someone keep these kids occupied?” I got up and entertained the kids for 25 minutes, and Al Gore comes behind me and starts singing “Wheels on the Bus.” Then the nursery school there asked me to sub in for their music teacher, and from there I started doing the music as teaching. This was a lot more fun. I just keep trying to get better.
In addition to teaching children, you’re the shaliach, or musical prayer leader, at The Kitchen in San Francisco. How do you envision your role in a religious service?
I see myself as the loudest among the people of the congregation. I could never do what I do in an empty room or into a microphone or for a group of people who aren’t responding. I’m trying to light the spark, and I have to hear back what the congregation is doing. Depending what the mood is, it’s always different.
The ultimate goal is to have people form a community, to have people who kind of know each other truly get to know each other on a deeper level and to have people who are total strangers smile at each other and say “Shabbat Shalom.” Part of that is like a party where people need a drink to be sociable and get going. The music is like that. We can have a great service with beautiful music, and if no one talked to each other and went their separate ways, it would be a total failure. It’s not just beautiful music, it’s something that’s happening between the leaders and the rest of the group.
Your family was heavily involved in your Reform congregation in suburban Chicago, and your education and career has been focused on Judaism. Did you ever rebel against Jewish life?
I have never been uncomfortable with it. I’m a big dork. I’m reading Torah and Midrash and all the different stuff. I’m still fascinated by the same stories that we read every year. Some are things that speak to human beings just on a human level, the stories about interactions between families, internecine rivalries; those are cultural archetypes. I think the deeper thing is it feels really cool to be part of a culture that has transcended so many generations and so many lifetimes. It’s like being a Yankees fan or a Patriots fan. We’re all going to die; this is my little tiny something that I was a part of, that is going to transcend me. I also like the fact that Judaism is a little weird. There’s all this bizarre stuff; I think of it as the junk DNA of Judaism. I like oysters. That’s my rebellion.
What is your favorite non-Jewish music?
Pure jazz, soul and blues mostly. As a guitar player, I love Django Reinhardt music. I like Delta blues, Robert Johnson and Reverend Gary Davis. He’s my prayer-leading idol. It’s that kind of Delta Blues shouter tradition, and he’s putting across these gospel songs, and his guitar’s a little bit out of tune and he’s just shouting and it’s really powerful stuff.
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