A Washington Jewish Week profile kick-started a lasting friendship between two Maryland songwriters. In 2019, Bob Nath was fascinated by Dr. Arnold Kirshenbaum’s music and story.
“We exchanged music. I liked his music; he liked my music,” Nath said, noting that he specializes in writing show tunes, while Kirshenbaum writes classical and orchestral music. The two recently finished writing a full-length Broadway-style musical based on the Book of Ruth that Nath hopes to have produced in 2026.
This project isn’t Nath’s first venture into the Jewish world. The retired lawyer served for a decade on the board — including a term as president — of the Garden of Remembrance Memorial Park, a Jewish cemetery in Clarksburg and on the board of American Friends of the IDF.
Nath served as a reserve Green Beret officer, part of the United States Army’s Special Forces, after graduating from law school.
Nath lives in Potomac and is a longtime member of Washington Hebrew Congregation, where he sings in the choir and previously held board membership roles. When he’s not singing or attending services, you can find Nath studying Hebrew at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
I grew up in New York City in the suburbs, and when you grow up in New York City as a Jew, you cannot help but absorb the atmosphere. We joined Temple Emanuel on Fifth Avenue when I was a child and I went through their educational system through confirmation. After that, after college and law school, I came to the D.C. area and immediately joined Washington Hebrew Congregation. I’ve been a member of WHC for over 40 years. Part of my Jewish education consists of joining the choir at [WHC]; when I joined 25 years ago under Cantor [Mikhail] Manevich, and now Cantors [Susan] Bortnick and Suzanne Hamstra, that opened up an enormous, new, wonderful, delicious world of Jewish music to me and, of course, enriched everything about my Jewish identity.
You’re very involved in the local Jewish community. Why is volunteering important to you?
It’s part of what I feel about my identity as a Jew, and as time has gone on, that identity has only grown stronger — not just my affinity with the Jewish community here, but also my love of the nation of Israel and especially my commitment to Jewish music. There’s layer upon layer and depth of meaning and soul-satisfying joy in being Jewish, especially around Jewish music.
Tell me about meeting Arnold Kirshenbaum.
Washington Jewish Week ran a profile on Arnie back in 2019 and I saw it and I said, “That’s somebody I’d like to meet.” So long story short, we met, we became friends, and Arnie invited me to collaborate with him on a major project that is named “Where You Go I Will Go,” a full-length musical based on the Book of Ruth, a complete reimagining in modern times of that magnificent book of the Hebrew Bible: “And by the way, you have 24 hours to decide.”
Have you always been interested in music and musical theater?
I’ve always been interested in music, especially growing up. But growing up, there wasn’t enough time for it as there is now, and the calling that gorgeous music makes to you was something that I paid a lot more attention to after I joined the choir. So when I did that, I began to write music. I began to hear songs in my head and I began to write them down, little by little, bar by bar, measure by measure, phrase by phrase. Then Cantor Manevich, at one point, said, “You have enough music here for a Friday night service. Why don’t you complete these songs?” So we did, and he presented that to [WHC] twice, in 2013 and 2016.
What’s your process for writing a song or musical?
When I write any song, what I seize upon could be one measure, it could be two, if I’m lucky even a musical phrase. And if that occurs to me, I’ll seize it because otherwise I’ll forget it. If it happens while I’m driving, as often happens, sometimes I’ll stop the car in a safe place and then write it down. But if I’m lucky enough to get a phrase like that, I can often make it into a song.
One of the main songs, “Where You Go I Will Go,” a four-and-a-half minute song, started as two measures that occurred to me one evening after dinner as I was walking between two rooms of the house. I quickly wrote down what I had [and] expanded it to other songs. Other songs more or less write themselves. They fall into place; they’re easy. Every song that I work on goes through 20, 30, sometimes 40 revisions; it seems like it never stops. Every time you go back to it, it seems like there’s something better.
His song cycle, “My Name is Moses,” will be performed at two locations in the D.C. area on Sept. 5 and 6.
