Finding Home Through Song
Dan Nichols reflects on camp, the power of music and the communities that help us belong
A t age 9, Dan Nichols found himself sitting in the back of a Shabbat song session at Jewish summer camp. Newly Jewish, he didn’t understand the Hebrew words or the meaning behind the music. He only knew how it made him feel.
When his counselor came over to check on him, Nichols explained: “It’s just so beautiful. I needed to sit back here and listen to all of it.”
That moment captures something Nichols has spent the past 25 years sharing with Jewish communities across the country: music can connect us to ourselves, to one another and to something larger than ourselves. We look forward to welcoming him as the MAC artist-in-residence on November 13-15.
One of Reform Judaism’s most beloved singer-songwriters and prayer leaders, Nichols rst found that connection at Goldman Union Camp Institute in Indiana. His childhood home was loving, he says, but also “volatile and confusing.” At camp, he found a dependable community where counselors cared for him and music brought people together.
“Camp is every bit as much a Jewish home for me as my own home,” he says.
Watching young counselors lead services and song sessions helped Nichols discover what he wanted to do himself. Today, he approaches songleading not as a performance, but as an opportunity to create something meaningful with a community.
Over time, that understanding has changed how he measures success. He’s let go of the idea that a successful songleader must get everyone to sing. “I used to feel responsible for the group,” he says. Now, he sees himself as responsible to the group: to prepare thoughtfully, offer something meaningful and let everyone engage in the way that’s right for them.
That approach has found a welcoming home at Temple Emanu-El. Over the years, Temple has given Nichols the freedom to explore his creativity and share his musical voice with our community. Here, he continues to grow as an artist while inviting others into the music and prayer that have shaped his own sense of Jewish home.
“My wish is for folks to allow the music to open themselves up to connecting more deeply with themselves and each other, and in doing so, allow themselves to connect more fully to God,” he says.
The gift Nichols discovered as a 9-yearold at camp, sitting quietly at the back of a room and letting the music lead him home, is the same gift he’ll share with our community.