Rick Recht

Richard Samuel "Rick" Recht (born August 28, 1970) is an American rock musician who was one of the early pioneers of contemporary Jewish rock music in the early 2000s, performing for Jewish teenage and young adult audiences.^[1] He is the founder and executive director of Songleader Boot Camp (SLBC).^[2]

Career

Recht grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. By the late 1990s, he was a member of a band and worked as a song leader at a Jewish day camp in St. Louis.^[1]

By the early 2000s, Recht and his band were touring nationwide, delivering about 150 performances a year, included for an estimated audience of 30,000 people at the Los Angeles Jewish Festival in 2003.^[3]

In 2010, Recht founded Jewish Rock Radio, one of the first exclusively Jewish rock online radio stations in the United States.^[4][5]

Recht is the Artist-in-Residence at the United Hebrew Congregation in Chesterfield, Missouri, where he provides music for Shabbat, High Holidays, and other programming.^[6]

In October 2023, the nonprofit Judaism Alive (of which Recht is executive director) organized the virtual event nity in Harmony: Standing in Solidarity, Song, and Prayer for Israel. Recht appeared with fellow musicians and community leaders, including David Broza, Nefesh Mountain, JFNA board member Julie Platt, Winnie Grinspoon of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, and Rabbi David Ingber of the 92nd Street Y.^[7]

Discography

Recht has released eight studio albums, two children's albums, and four live albums.^[6]

Studio albums

Year	Title	Label	Notes
1992	Collage	Independent	Sole album with the band Collage.[8]
1994	Reality		Debut solo album.
1998	Good Thing	Vibe Room
1999	Tov		Debut Jewish-themed album. Features a backing choir of USY, NFTY, and BBYO singers.
2004	What Feels So Right
2005	Tear Down The Walls	Jewish Rock	Collection of songs themed around social justice and anti-racism.
2009	Simply Shabbat		Collection of original melodies for Shabbat songs.
2013	Halleluyah
2018	Here I Am	Independent

Live albums

Year	Title	Label	Notes
2001	Shabbat Alive!	Vibe Room	Released as multimedia CD. Features six youth choirs from St. Louis and Kansas City, as well as guest appearances from Craig Taubman, Dan Nichols, and Peri Smilow.
2003	The Hope (Live)		Features Recht's successful song "The Hope".
2005	Shabbat Alive! Live	Jewish Rock	Recording of Recht's Shabbat Alive! service, recorded at United Hebrew Congregation in St. Louis. Includes originals as well as compositions from Craig Taubman, Debbie Friedman, Julie Silver, Dan Nichols, and others.
2008	Knockin' Holes in the Darkness		Recorded on April 19, 2007 at Hope Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Includes three bonus studio tracks.

Children's albums

Year	Title	Label	Notes
2002	Free to Be the Jew in Me	Jewish Rock	Collection of children's songs as well as short stories, poems, and skits, with themes of diversity and Jewish identity.
2010	Look At Me!	Jewish Rock/PJ Library	Collaborative album with musician Sheldon Low.

Singles

Year	Title	Album
2018	"Oseh Shalom"	Here I Am
2021	"Chosen Family"	non-album single

Music videos

• "The Hope" (2006)^[9]
• "Summer of Our Lives" (2012)^[10]
• "The Rainbow Song" (2017)^[11]
• "Sanctuary" (2017)^[12]
• "Here For You" (2019)^[13]
• "Oseh Shalom" (2019)^[14]
• "Chosen Family" (2022)^[15]