I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that many of us grew up hearing a lot of both The Beastie Boys as well as Jewish singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman. Obviously the two have very little in common — save for the fact that they’re all Jews –but I know at some point in the early 1990’s that I wasn’t the only person to storm out of a room in my house that had a Friedman song being played by one of my parents, go up to my bedroom, slam the door and blast Ill Communication.
So the news that Adam Yauch is cancer free is great to hear, but the news that Friedman’s condition is “not looking good,” makes it bittersweet. In an e-mail from Hebrew Union College:
The measures the doctors have been using are not succeeding in opening up her lungs. They are going to try rotating her bed in different ways on Thursday in the hope that that may shake loose some of the material blocking her breathing. Those in attendance are speaking of the need for a miracle.