If you were a Jewish young man coming out of college in the early 1990s, still wanting to be cool and hip, you were listening to the Counting Crows. The band quietly electrified us thanks to their super-hip frontman Adam Duritz. And when it became known that this cool Jewish lead guy with dreadlocks was dating Jennifer Aniston, he wasn’t just another singer — he was the guy we all wanted to be.

Flash forward three decades and Duritz is still out there, still singing and still surprising us. The last time the Counting Crows were in St. Louis was just after COVID and although Duritz’s dreadlocks were gone, he still had great hair and kept right on rocking. Back then I thought of him only as one of my Jewish rock idols. What I didn’t know is just how deep and personal his Jewish story really runs.

Now, a new documentary, “Have You Seen Me Lately,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June and beautifully details Duritz’s Jewish story, is set to land on HBO later this year. Which makes this the perfect time to talk about that story.

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A Jewish upbringing

Duritz was born in Baltimore to a Reform Jewish family, the son of a military doctor. In an interview at the film release, Duritz talked about how the constant moves due to his father’s job, helped shaped him and so did the feeling of never fully belonging. He’s spoken openly about living with depersonalization disorder — a condition he says has been tougher to manage than the chaos of the music business.

Israel ties and kibbutz memories

At 18 he spent a summer at Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel. Years later when Hamas attacked that same kibbutz in 2023, the tragedy hit home. In a 2022 interview with Ynet, Duritz said those long days on the kibbutz “taught me what work is. To wake up at the break of dawn every day, to work with your hands.”

Speaking out today

He’s also been outspoken about antisemitism. “Antisemitism is a constant, but it’s not just antisemitism, it’s anti-whoever,” he told the Jewish Telegraph. “Humans love to blame everything on somebody else and we’ve been doing it forever.”

Duritz may not know if his band will ever be “really big” again — as he told GQ — but for those of us who grew up seeing him as the Jewish rock star we didn’t know we needed, he’ll always matter.

We’ll keep you posted on when the documentary is ready to air.