Volume 21•3

LegendaryMusicians

and the Messiah

Everybody has heard Bob Dylan’s

music. You may be less well

acquainted with the work of René

Bloch and Helen Shapiro. Bloch played

the famous alto sax solo on Johnny

Otis’s 1940s hit, “Harlem Nocturne.”

Shapiro is the British teen singing

sensation who had the Beatles as her

opening act!

What do these three have in

common, other than being highly

accomplished Jewish musicians? All

have been outspoken in their belief that

Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. Here’s

what they have to say . . .(continued inside)

Robert Allen Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan, shocked his fans in 1965 when he played his electric

guitar at the Newport Folk Festival. But he shocked them even more when he released his Slow Train Coming album in August 1979. The songs explicitly expressed Dylan’s newfound faith in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.

When Dylan debuted songs from his new album on Saturday Night Live—including “Gotta Serve Somebody”—Rabbi Laurence Schlesinger, who has written about Dylan, said he was “completely stunned” at the words and message.1

The album sleeve of Dylan’s next record, Saved, included a portion of the Hebrew Scriptures which showed that Dylan understood that he was still very much a Jew, one who had now entered into a new covenant with God through Jesus: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31).

Dylan’s next album, Shot of Love, released in August 1981, mixed secular and religious songs. Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times asked Dylan why some of those new songs seemed “only remotely religious.” Dylan replied, “They’ve evolved. I’ve made my statement, and I don’t think I could make it any better than in some of those songs. Once

I’ve said what I need to say in a song, that’s it. I don’t want to repeat myself.”2

That answer didn’t stop the media from speculating that Dylan was retreating from his profession of faith. In March 1982, New York Magazine published an article entitled, “Dylan Ditching Gospel?” In the article, an unnamed source speculated that because Dylan was attending his son’s bar mitzvah instead of a ceremony to present the Gospel Song of the Year for the National Music Publishers’ Association, “[his Christian period] is over.”3 But, as author Scott Marshall pointed out, “It didn’t seem to occur to them [the rumor-mongers] that Dylan would choose sharing this special rite of passage with his son over the opportunity to hand out a music award.”4 The anonymous source also conjectured that Dylan had only been “testing” his faith the last three years and had now settled back into Judaism. As Marshall noted, “The irony, to anyone who was paying attention to Dylan’s own words during those years, is that he never left his Jewish roots. All along, he saw a direct connection between his identity as a Jew and his belief in Jesus as the Messiah. He could not have been more clear about that.”5

More speculation arose when Dylan began studies at the Lubavitch Center in Brooklyn in 1983. But Larry Emond, a pastor who regularly met with Dylan, observed:

[Dylan] was one of those fortunate ones who realized that Judaism and Christianity can work very well together, because Christ is Yeshua ha’Meshiah [Jesus the Messiah]. And so he doesn’t have any problems about putting on a yarmulke and going to a bar mitzvah, because he can respect that. And [he] recognizes that maybe those people themselves will recognize who Yeshua ha’Meshiah is one of these days.6

It has become more difficult to discern Dylan’s beliefs going forward, in part because, as he said, he feels he has covered that territory already in his songs and doesn’t want to repeat himself. However, even though his songs since his “gospel period” are not overtly religious, his lyrics still often address

ISSN 0741-0352 PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. ©2016EDITOR IN CHIEF: SUSAN PERLMAN EDITOR: MATT SIEGERDESIGN / ILLUSTRATION: PAIGE SAUNDERSJOIN US AT FACEBOOK.COM/ISSUESMAG

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Thinking Twice about Bob Dylan by Matt Sieger

Dylan with Joan Baez in 1962

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spiritual topics (see “Dylan’s Biblical Lyrics” on pages 4–5).Dylan doesn’t give many personal interviews, and, when he

does, he prefers to focus on his music. He is also is a master of ambiguity. But he has made some telling comments regarding issues of faith. When asked in 1984 if he believed in evil, Dylan replied:

Sure I believe in it. I believe that ever since Adam and Eve got thrown out of the garden that the whole nature of the planet has been heading in one direction— towards apocalypse. It’s all there in the Book of Revelation, but it’s difficult talking about these things to most people because most people don’t know what you’re talking about, or don’t want to listen.7

In an interview with Rolling Stone around that time, the conversation went like this:

You’re a literal believer of the Bible?Yeah. Sure, yeah. I am.Are the Old and New Testaments equally valid?To me.. . .When you meet up with Orthodox [Jewish] people, can you sit down with them and say, “Well, you should really check out Christianity”?Well, yeah, if somebody asks me, I’ll tell ‘em. But you know, I’m not just going to offer my opinion. I’m more about playing my music, you know?8

In a 1985 interview, Dylan had this to say:

We’re all sinners. People seem to think that because their sins are different from other people’s sins, they’re not sinners. People don’t like to think of themselves as sinners. It makes them feel uncomfortable. “What do you mean sinners?” It puts them at a disadvantage in their mind. Most people walking around have this strange conception that they’re born good, that they’re really good people—but the world has just made a mess of their lives. I have another point of view. But it’s not hard for me to identify

with anybody who’s on the wrong side. We’re all on the wrong side, really.

He added:

The Bible runs through all U.S. life, whether people know it or not. It’s the founding book. The founding fathers’ book anyway. People can’t get away from it. You can’t get away from it wherever you go. Those ideas were true then and they’re true now. They’re scriptural, spiritual laws. I guess people can read into that what they want. But if you’re familiar with those concepts they’ll probably find enough of them in my stuff. Because I always get back to that.9

Rolling Stone interviewed Dylan again in 1986, and Mikal Gilmore asked him if he had moved to the right, politically. Dylan replied:

Well, for me, there is no right and there is no left. There’s truth and there’s untruth, y’know? There’s honesty and there’s hypocrisy. Look in the Bible: you don’t see nothing about right or left. Other people might have other ideas about things, but I don’t, because I’m not that smart. I hate to keep beating people over the head with the Bible, but that’s the only instrument I know, the only thing that stays true.

When asked if a good Christian has to be a political conservative, Dylan responded:

Conservative? Well, don’t forget, Jesus said that it’s harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to enter the eye of a needle. I mean, is that conservative? I don’t know, I’ve heard a lot of preachers say how God wants everybody to be wealthy and healthy. Well, it doesn’t say that in the Bible. You can twist anybody’s words, but that’s only for fools and people who follow fools.10

In an interview for USA Today in 1989, Edna Gunderson asked Dylan if he was concerned about his “image.” He replied:

ISSUES is a forum of several Messianic Jewish viewpoints. The author alone, where the author’s name is given, is responsible for the statements expressed. Those wishing to take exception or wishing to enter into dialogue with one of these authors may write the publishers and letters will be forwarded. Email: editor@issuesmag.org • jewsforjesus.org

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(continued on page 4

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It’s been years since I’ve read anything about myself. [People] can think what they want and let me be. You can’t let the fame get in the way of your calling. Everybody is entitled to lead a private life. Then again, God watches everybody, so there’s nothing really private, nothing we can hide. As long as you’re exposing everything to the power that created you, people can’t uncover too much.11

Of course, that didn’t stop them from trying. In 2001, Howard Sounes released his book, Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, in which he revealed that Dylan returned to womanizing and drink after becoming a follower of Jesus. But, as Steve Turner wrote in his review of the book for Christianity Today, “The best advice I got was from a former sideman of Dylan’s who had converted about the same time. He said it would be safer to distinguish between the lyrics of the songs, which would remain true whatever failings their author may later exhibit, and Dylan himself.”12

Speculation on Dylan’s spiritual state ran rampant when

he did his first television interview in nineteen years, with Ed Bradley, which aired on 60 Minutes on June 26, 2005. Here is the portion of the interview that especially raised eyebrows:

Bradley: Why do you still do it? Why are you still out here? Dylan: It goes back to that destiny thing. I made a bargain with it a long time ago, and I’m holding up my end. Bradley: What was your bargain? Dylan: To get where I am now. Bradley: Should I ask whom you made the bargain with? Dylan: With the chief commander. Bradley: On this earth? Dylan: (laughing) On this earth and in the world we can’t see.

Hold on! Did Dylan make a deal with the devil? Or is the “chief commander” God? Christians weighed in. David Cloud speculated that Dylan’s deal “refers to the old blues concept of selling one’s soul to the devil, something that Robert Johnson and others have sung about.”13

4

Dylan’s Biblical Lyrics

Michael J. Gilmour dedicates his book, Tangled up in the Bible: Bob Dylan & Scripture, “To Bob Dylan, my favorite theologian.” Gilmour,

a professor of English and biblical literature at Providence University College in Manitoba, Canada, is probably speaking tongue-in-cheek. But there’s no disputing that biblical allusions have pervaded Dylan’s lyrics.

Gilmour notes that “[Dylan’s] musical influences included gospel, and much of the American and folk and blues music that proved to be so formative was infused with biblical imagery as well.”1 In his early songs Dylan frequently made reference to Jesus and to themes from both the New Testament and Hebrew Scriptures. That doesn’t necessarily say anything about his religious persuasions, as he drew his imagery from many literary sources.

But we do know that after he released Slow Train Coming in 1979, Dylan declared publicly that he was a follower of Jesus. It is no great stretch to conclude that the lyrics of his gospel songs matched his personal beliefs.

Dylan also said in a 1995 interview:If you’re talking just on a scriptural type of thing, there’s no way I could write anything that would be scripturally incorrect. I mean, I’m not going to put forth ideas that aren’t scripturally true. I might reverse them, or make them come out a different way, but I’m not going to say anything that’s just totally wrong, that there’s not a law for.2

Writer Ronnie Keohane, a Jewish believer in Jesus, notes that after 1979, in live performances of “Masters of War,” Dylan omitted the verse that includes this line: “Even Jesus would never forgive what you do.” Keohane explains, “Dylan knows it is not biblically correct, because all sins that a man can commit are possible for God to forgive.”3

Many of Dylan’s songs on his gospel albums contain apocalyptic references, such as these from “Are You Ready” on his Saved (1980) album:

Are you ready for the judgment? Are you ready for that terrible swift sword? Are you ready for Armageddon? Are you ready for the day of the Lord?

But even in later songs we find that theme, as in “Things Have Changed,” (2000) where Dylan sings, “If the Bible is right, the world will explode.”

We also find indications of a personal relationship with God in Dylan’s lyrics, such as in “‘Til I Fell in Love with You’ from Time Out of Mind (1997), where he sings, “But I know God is my shield and he won’t lead me astray.”

In 2009, Dylan brought back to his live performances the 1980 song from his Saved album, “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking.”

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1. Scott M. Marshall, Restless Pilgrim: The Spiritual Journey of Bob Dylan (Lake Mary, FL: Relevant Books, 2002), p. 35.

2. Robert Hilburn, interview with Dylan, Los Angeles Times, November 23, 1980.3. “Dylan Ditching Gospel?” New York Magazine, March 15, 1982, p. 15.4. Marshall, op. cit., p. 62.5. Ibid.6. “Has Born-again Bob Dylan Returned to Judaism?” Christianity Today, January

13, 1984, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/mayweb-only/5-21-45.0.html7. Mick Brown, “Bob Dylan: ‘Jesus, who’s got time to keep up with the times?’”

The Sunday Times, July 1, 1984, p. 15.8. Kurt Loder, “Bob Dylan, Recovering Christian,” Rolling Stone, June 21, 1984,

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-recovering-christian-198406219. Bill Flanagan, Written in My Soul: Conversations with Rock’s Great

Songwriters (Rosetta Books, LLC, eBook), print book c. 1987.

10. Mikal Gilmore, “Dylan: On Recapturing ‘Highway 61’ and Touring with Tom Petty,” Rolling Stone, July 17, 1986, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/positively-dylan-on-recapturing-the-spirit-of-highway-61-and-teaming-up-with-tom-petty-and-the-heartbreakers-19860717

11. Edna Gunderson, “He’s Still Painting His Masterpiece,” USA Today, September 21, 1989.

12. Steve Turner, “Watered Down Love,” Christianity Today, May 21, 2001.13. David Cloud, “Bob Dylan,” May 29, 2001, http://www.wayoflife.org/index_

files/bob_dylan.html14. Kees de Graaf, “Bob Dylan’s ‘When the Deal Goes Down’—lyric analysis,

part 1,” http://www.keesdegraaf.com/index.php/158/bob-dylans-when-the-deal-goes-down-lyric-analysis-part-1

15. Bill Flanagan, interview with Dylan, October 2009, http://www.dylancode.com/styled/

Endnotes

But Kees de Graaf argued that a person can indeed make a deal with God—the new covenant that Dylan refers to in the liner notes to his Saved album and in his “Covenant Woman” song on that album, where he sings, “I’ve got a covenant too.”14

In 2009, after Dylan released his Christmas album, interviewer Bill Flanagan, speaking of Dylan’s performance of “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” told Dylan, “You sure deliver that song like a true believer.” Dylan responded, “Well, I am a true believer.”15

As Dylan continually points out, his personal life is between him and God. At live performances he has continued to sing songs from his “gospel” albums, including, even in recent years, “I Believe in You,” “Saving Grace,” “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking” and “Every Grain of Sand.”

So is Dylan still a Jew for Jesus? Only his Creator knows for sure. But more importantly, what would it take for you to “change your way of thinking [about Jesus]?” n

The lyrics to the original song were quite direct:Jesus said, “Be ready, For you know not the hour in which I come.” He said, “He who is not for Me is against Me,” Just so you know where He’s coming from.

He does not sing that verse in his more recent version, but he does add this one:

Every day you got to pray for guidance Every day you got to give yourself a chance Storms on the ocean, storms out on the mountain, too Storms on the ocean, storms out on the mountain, too Oh Lord, you know I have no friend like you

In 2003 Dylan reintroduced “Saving Grace” from the Saved album to his audiences. He last performed it in 2012. It is clearly about Jesus and includes this verse:

Well, the death of life, then come the resurrection Wherever I am welcome is where I’ll be I put all my confidence in Him, my sole protection Is the saving grace that’s over me

As recently as 2011, he was still performing “Gotta Serve Somebody,” perhaps his most direct statement on one’s responsibility before God:

You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed You’re gonna have to serve somebody Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

In 2013 at a live performance in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Dylan performed for his first time the traditional gospel blues song, “Let Your Light Shine on Me.” Although he traded off with two guest vocalists in singing the verses, Dylan chose to sing the most directly evangelical verse, one that clearly refers to Jesus:

My Lord, he’s done just what he said Let Your light from the lighthouse shine on me Heal the sick and raise the dead Let Your light from the lighthouse shine on me

Does Dylan’s music contain spiritual themes—yes! Is Dylan a Jewish follower of Jesus? That answer is not as clear. But because he is Dylan, the speculation will continue . . .

1. Michael J. Gilmour, Tangled Up in the Bible: Bob Dylan & Scripture (New York: Continuum, 2004), p. 12.

2. Bill Flanagan, Written in My Soul: Conversations with Rock’s Great Songwriters (Rosetta Books, LLC, eBook), print book c. 1987.

3. Scott M. Marshall, Restless Pilgrim: The Spiritual Journey of Bob Dylan (Lake Mary, FL: Relevant Books, 2002), p. 180.

Endnotes

—Matt Sieger

6

If you like jazz, you may know the jazz standard, “Harlem Nocturne.” Johnny Otis’s band made it a big hit in the

1940s, featuring a plaintive lead by 18-year-old alto sax player René Bloch. Bloch went on to play with big band leaders Charlie Barnet, Harry James and Perez Prado, known as the King of the Mambo. Bloch recorded the number one hits “Cherry Pink and Blossom White” and “Patricia” with Prado’s band.

But Bloch’s life took a major turn in mid-life. He ended up as a rabbi of a Messianic congregation—a position he still holds today at age 90! How does something like that happen? Well, as Rabbi Bloch explains, “This is God. It couldn’t have happened any other way.”

René, whose father, Louis, was a French Jew, was named after famous French aviator René Fonck, a World War I fighter ace. Louis’s family emigrated from France to Mexico, where Louis met his wife, Caroline. Louis and Caroline moved to southeast Los Angeles, where René was born in 1925, the youngest of four brothers.

Louis taught his boys what he knew of Judaism, but there were no synagogues in their working-class neighborhood. Since Louis did not drive, the only way to the nearest synagogue was by streetcar, a trip the family made only on the High Holidays. Most of their relatives lived some distance away, so Passover seders were shared with neighborhood Jewish friends.

The Blochs listened to jazz, and clarinetist Artie Shaw became René’s favorite. The local Conservatory of Music loaned him a metal clarinet, but he hated the metal version and returned it a month later. When René was twelve, his brother’s friend sold him a silver saxophone for $25. He loved it, but wanted a better horn, so he took a job on Saturdays pumping gas for $2 a day. His mother felt sorry for him and helped him buy a Buescher alto sax.

Bloch played by ear for a couple of years until he went to an audition and realized he needed to learn to read music. He found Merle Johnston, an accomplished saxophonist and music

René Bloch: The Rabbi with Swing by Matt Sieger

René, age 23 (center, looking at camera), with Vido Musso’s band (Musso is taking the solo) at the Avalon Ballroom in Los Angeles

René (third from right) with his fellow saxophonists in Prado’s (on left) band “I think God loves jazz!”

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teacher, and told him, “I want to be fast. I want to be the best saxophone player in the world.” Johnston responded, “Well, then you’ll have to practice.”1

And practice he did, five to six hours a day in the closet of his parents’ apartment, nearly driving his father crazy. René attended Jefferson High School, which has produced jazz luminaries such as Dexter Gordon and Art Farmer. Like many Jefferson musicians, René studied under Dr. Samuel Brown, who had René join the musicians’ union. René fell in love with the music of Count Basie and began to channel Basie’s great alto sax player, Preston Love. René was playing regularly in the stage band at the Lincoln Theater. When legendary band leader Otis heard René play, he was thrilled that he played like Love. He hired René.

That led to Bloch’s beautiful recording of “Harlem Nocturne.” After playing with several other bands, Bloch got his first taste of Latin jazz with Prado’s group. He played with Prado for five years, also serving as band manager, traveling from L.A. to Florida to New York and even to Spain.

When Prado’s band broke up, René formed his own band from all of Prado’s musicians—except Prado! That band recorded several albums, including Mucho Rock (1958), a combination of Latin and rock, and Mr. Latin (1962).

During this time, René’s mother was beginning to worry that her traveling-musician son wasn’t meeting any nice Jewish girls. So she got a friend to invite René to dinner to meet the friend’s daughter, Miriam. They hit it off and were married in 1961. Children followed, two sons and a daughter. René broke up the band in the mid-1960s and became assistant to the president of the local musicians’ union.

Most of his friends were Jewish musicians. One of them, Eddie Carlin, invited René and Miriam to attend Marriage Encounter, at that time a Catholic-run weekend event to enhance marriages. People of all faiths were welcome, and Carlin and his wife had loved it. The Blochs’ marriage was fine, but they decided to go.

During the weekend, a Catholic priest asked the Blochs, “Are you Jewish?” René was defensive, thinking perhaps the priest was going to throw them out! Instead, the priest asked them to read a passage from the Bible. René recalls, “Every word was exploding in my mind and in my heart, because he was describing Yeshua (Jesus). So when I finished that chapter, he said, ‘Who do you think that

was?’ I said, ‘Well, that’s something from your Christian Bible.’ And he said, ‘No, that’s from your Bible, Isaiah, chapter 53.’2 I just kept reading it over and over until it sunk in—Jesus is the Messiah! He’s the one we’ve been looking for all this time.”

After returning home, René told Miriam, “There have to be other Jews who believe this.” René found a listing in the Yellow Pages for a Messianic congregation, Temple Beth Emmanuel. He phoned on a Friday, and they invited the Blochs to a bar mitzvah that evening. “The service was magnificent,” René remembers. “It was like we finally found home. We found Jewish believers in Yeshua like us.”

But the change in René was not just in religious observance.

“There was a change in my countenance,” he says. “All my friends could see it in my face, and I could feel it in my heart. I had such joy.”

By 1981, the Blochs felt led to make aliyah. They completed the paperwork, sold their home, and drove across country. They stayed with

René, the rabbi of Beth Shalom congregation

(continued on page 8)

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Read the story of British pop star Helen Shapiro! Enjoy an interview with Shai Sol Hever, a young Messianic Jewish singer who created controversy on the Israeli version of American Idol. Learn why aspiring Jewish punk rocker Valerie Cymes turned to Jesus. Get a free CD by the young Jewish folk-rock group, New Light Ruins! All at j4j.co/issues21v03

What about other Jewish people who have been challenged with this same issue? Check out ShoutOut to find out. Jewish journeys of faith, streaming now at jewsforjesus.org/shoutout

Helen Shapiro and John Lennon; Shai Sol Hever, left

friends in Rockville, Maryland, ready to depart from New York City to Israel in a few weeks. But during that time, René hooked up with musicians Paul Wilbur and Marc Chopinsky from Beth Messiah Congregation in Rockville. The trio bonded quickly and aliyah was put on hold—for ten years! The three musical friends became the band Israel’s Hope and produced two albums. Arise O Lord was nominated for a Dove award.

When Wilbur left for Chicago for a worship leader position, René thought it was finally time to head for Israel. But the

aliyah office told him he’d have to start the whole process from scratch. That seemed too daunting, so René moved his family back to California. There the Blochs began to attend Beth Shalom congregation in Corona. In 1991 the congregation asked René to serve as their rabbi. He accepted.

“It was not my idea,” say René. “It was God’s idea.” He felt that all the teaching he had received the last ten years at Beth Messiah had prepared him for this role.3

Beth Shalom remains spiritually healthy. René’s son Robert also serves as rabbi there and has taken on many of the responsibilities. In 2013 Beth Shalom purchased a synagogue, previously the home of a Conservative congregation. René still plays his horns, recording the album Winds of the Spirit in 2009. He plays music in his congregation as well, weaving jazz into the worship.

“I play what I feel in my heart,” he says. “I think God appreciates it. I think God loves jazz.”4 n

Endnotes

(continued from page 7)

René guides his granddaughter Bethany through the Torah portion of her bat mitzvah

1. The Idelsohn Society interview with René Bloch, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBhZ1KuQ1WI

2. PCU Live interview with René Bloch, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6U9ir2tGWg

3. Ibid.4. Idelsohn Society interview.

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photo courtesy of Shai Sol Hever

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