Why Release Another Jewish Album Now? A personal essay by songwriter Larry Lesser
Like many Jews, I’m still reeling from the last two years and the continuing rise of antisemitism. A 2025 ADL/World Union of Jewish Students poll found more than three-quarters of Jewish college students now conceal their religious identity. On the other hand, many of us have found that staying invisible is not the answer or even possible.
A big recent part of my visibility is that I released a 24-song album Sparks of original Jewish folk-rock that scored four finalist recognitions including Best Album and won Best Humorous Song at the 34th New Mexico Music Awards and spawned a music video that was an Official Selection screened at the 2025 Silver City Community Film Festival. In addition to such secular recognitions, I’m very grateful for how the album also garnered praise from current/recent heads of national Jewish organizations across denominations, including CLAL, USCJ, Mussar Institute, Partners in Torah, and Women Cantors’ Network.
I hadn’t planned on recording a follow-up album this year, but plans changed when I needed a creative outlet to ground myself amidst increased stress on the Jewish/Israel front, the US political front, the personal front — our beloved rescue dog of 15 years was dying, and on the academic front — threats to grants, research, tenure, academic freedom, and inclusion.
Four days after October 7, 2023, I was asked to perform my song “Sderot Sky” at a Cantors Assembly gathering. The Israeli city of Sderot is less than a kilometer from the border with Gaza. The music helped me and others start to process the horror of what had happened and what agony might lie ahead when confronting an enemy that uses human shields and hostages as bargaining chips. We are all Sderot now – most Jews are just a few degrees separated from threats or acts of terror. But I see the potential power of putting songs out there that can comfort or rally us or dispel some misinformation and hatred and affirm that, yes, we will dance again.
I have just released my new album Night Will End. It was long-listed for the 2026 International Folk Music Awards, as were three of its songs, and it has come out just in time for Chanukah, available here. The album features top musicians in our community, especially Las Cruces’ Amalia Kelter Zeitlin, former principal second violin of El Paso Symphony.
The songs aim to be accessible and engaging to seekers and believers of any or no denomination. My own journey has spanned six denominations – neither my Judaism nor my music fits in one box! The album’s songs are not liturgical, but rather, an exploration of Jewish culture and text and big picture issues about Jewish values, identity and community, beyond the sanctuary and beyond those with solidified beliefs.
The three long-listed songs on the album are “Held”, a song of the Goldberg-Polin family’s October 7 ordeal and strength, “Talking to the Wall”, a prayer up against the Western Wall, and “Peace”, which navigates the tension between peace and truth. The title track of Night Will End reassures us, despite recent struggles and traumas, that this night will end when we adopt the Talmudic call to see each other as neighbor, friend, brother or sister.
A quick sidebar for those who don’t yet know me: I’m in my twenty-second year as a University of Texas at El Paso professor who researches statistics/math education, and I was elected this year as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. Songwriter and professor seem like very different identities, but both involve lifelong learning and curiosity to discover and create something that did not exist before, based on thoughtful observations of the world. And I’m blessed to have found ways to connect my “day job” to my passions, with some of my articles and funded projects connecting statistics/math education to poetry, to song, or to Judaism.
Last month when I shared some of the songs in adult education sessions at El Paso’s Temple Mount Sinai, congregants enjoyed being able to ask about my song-writing process while wrestling with the text.
I believe the transformative power of Jewish music can transcend boxes of genre, denomination, occupation, age, and celebrity charisma. I invite you to browse the music links and consider supporting such independent projects by buying an album (reactions are welcome!) or having your congregation invite me for a Zoom study-and-song session or a scholar/artist-in-residence weekend. Most importantly, I pray my music increases peace, comfort, joy, insight, and light in our world. Happy Chanukah!
Larry Lesser is a UTEP Distinguished Teaching Professor of Mathematical Sciences at The University of Texas at El Paso, and an award-winning songwriter/poet. You may contact him at info@LarryLesser.com.
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