{"id":10094,"date":"2013-10-18T06:04:27","date_gmt":"2013-10-18T12:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=10094"},"modified":"2013-10-18T06:04:27","modified_gmt":"2013-10-18T12:04:27","slug":"neshama-carlebach-following-her-fathers-footsteps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/neshama-carlebach-following-her-fathers-footsteps\/","title":{"rendered":"Neshama Carlebach: following her father&#8217;s footsteps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By LISA ALCALAY KLUG<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 As the August premiere of the Broadway musical \u201cSoul Doctor\u201d drew to a close, the daughter of the show\u2019s subject, the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, took to the stage.<br \/>\nNeshama Carlebach invited the cast and audience to join her in singing her father\u2019s legendary hit, \u201cAm Yisrael Chai,\u201d which became widely recognized as an anthem for the Soviet Jewry movement.<\/p>\n<p>The refrain, \u201cOd avinu chai,\u201d translates as \u201cOur father lives on\u201d and is derived from the question Joseph asks his brothers in the book of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>Although \u201cSoul Doctor\u201d closed on Sunday after 32 preview performances and 66 regular performances, there was no mistaking the significance of the lyrics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was the culmination of 10 years of work,\u201d Carlebach told JTA. \u201cIt was a moment of triumph for my father that he was on Broadway. But it was another step in the journey. I know there is more work to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10095\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/neshama2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10095\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10095 lazyload\" title=\"&quot;Soul Doctor&quot; Broadway Opening Night - After Party\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/neshama2-300x188.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/neshama2-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/neshama2-1024x642.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/neshama2.jpg 1825w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/188;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10095\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10095 \" title=\"&quot;Soul Doctor&quot; Broadway Opening Night - After Party\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/neshama2-300x188.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/neshama2-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/neshama2-1024x642.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/neshama2.jpg 1825w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-10095\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neshama Carlebach attending the after party for the Broadway opening night of \u201cSoul Doctor.\u201d(Cindy Ord\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The work Carlebach speaks of is the perpetual \u201cfixing of the world,\u201d or <em>tikkun olam<\/em>, the healing of broken hearts and rectification of injustices that her father, a famed Jewish troubadour and spiritual leader who died 19 years ago this month, emphasized throughout his career.<\/p>\n<p>His legacy continues to be celebrated by an ever-growing stream of Carlebach-inspired bands, in memorial events around the world and in yet another biography \u2014 Natan Ophir\u2019s \u201cRabbi Shlomo Carlebach: Life, Mission, and Legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But as interest in her father continues to grow, Carlebach is battling obstacles not entirely unlike those that once dogged her father, from the endless pirating of his music to her marriage \u2014 which, like that of her parents, ended in divorce.<\/p>\n<p>True to her roots, Carlebach\u2019s work as a female performing artist is grounded in Jewish tradition. Yet she continually breaks new ground. Last year, she performed at an interfaith peace summit at Mt. Fuji, Japan and at the gates of Auschwitz on Yom Hashoah. She has recorded an album and performed widely with an African-American Baptist church choir. Last weekend, she headlined the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism centennial in Baltimore with Josh Nelson (<a title=\"At United Synagogue centennial, tough talk about need for change\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/at-united-synagogue-centennial-tough-talk-about-need-for-change\/\" target=\"_blank\">see related CCJN story here<\/a>), who produced her upcoming album, \u201cSoul Daughter,\u201d inspired by the Broadway show and scheduled for release before Chanukah. The pair will also perform at the Union for Reform Judaism biennial in December.<\/p>\n<p>In September, Carlebach joined with Storahtelling theater troupe founder Amichai Lau-Lavie to help lead High Holidays services in New York through Lau-Lavie\u2019s new project, Lab\/Shul.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that she is bringing her own creations woven with her father\u2019s legacy is exactly why she is the perfect person to be with us, in what we are co-creating \u2014 an infusion of the \u2018inherited ancient\u2019 and the \u2018radically new,\u2019\u201d says Lau-Lavie.<\/p>\n<p>In 1994, the year her father suffered a fatal heart attack on an airplane, Neshama, then a teenager, joined him on stage for the first time during what became his last tour. Together, they broke the taboo of kol isha, the Orthodox prohibition of women singing before men.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10096\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/carlebachshow.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10096\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10096 lazyload\" title=\"carlebachshow\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/carlebachshow-300x194.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"194\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/carlebachshow-300x194.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/carlebachshow-1024x664.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/carlebachshow.jpg 1195w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/194;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10096\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10096 \" title=\"carlebachshow\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/carlebachshow-300x194.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/carlebachshow-300x194.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/carlebachshow-1024x664.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/carlebachshow.jpg 1195w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-10096\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eric Anderson portrays Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach in the Broadway production \u201cSoul Doctor.\u201d (Carol Rosegg)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>With her father\u2019s passing, Neshama immediately stepped in as a solo act, fulfilling his existing bookings. She has performed ever since, touring widely and releasing eight albums.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I had been the first Orthodox woman singing in the 1950s, I may not have gone anywhere,\u201d she says. \u201cI sense that there is a new opening for women. We are not done with our revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Breaking the Orthodox sound barrier isn\u2019t the only path Carlebach is trailblazing. Together with her younger sister, Nedara \u201cDari\u201d Carlebach, a married mother of two who resides in Israel largely out of the public eye, they are gathering their father\u2019s intellectual property into a comprehensive archive.<\/p>\n<p>Under the auspices of the Jerusalem-based Carlebach Legacy Trust, the sisters have amassed photographs, audio and video recordings, and spiritual teachings. In 2012, in conjunction with Urim Publications, the trust released the first of several volumes of their father\u2019s biblical commentary, \u201cEvan Shlomo: The Torah Commentary of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach,\u201d edited by Shlomo Katz.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe full image of our father is still hidden to most people,\u201d Dari told JTA. \u201cIt\u2019s even hard for us to grasp how much he brought to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A mother of two, Neshama\u2019s oldest son, Rafael, 6, is a drummer who has apparently inherited his grandfather\u2019s musicality. Rafael plays percussion on the \u201cSoul Daughter\u201d recording of \u201cThe Song of Shabbos,\u201d which Shlomo composed at the funeral of his father, addressing the late Rabbi Naftali Carlebach beyond the grave.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy father said, \u2018Because everything was lost in the war, you didn\u2019t leave me riches, diamonds or real estate. You left me <em>Shabbos<\/em>.\u2019 On the spot, this song came to him,\u201d Neshama Carlebach said. \u201cAnd now, I sing for my father. The circle feels complete to have my son perform on that song.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The track is one of 30 featured in \u201cSoul Doctor.\u201d Originally conceived as a one-woman show in which Carlebach sang and shared her father\u2019s stories, it evolved over time into a musical.<\/p>\n<p>The show is built around Shlomo\u2019s friendship with gospel and jazz legend Nina Simone, a tradition of cross-cultural collaboration Neshama carries forward with The Green Pastures Baptist Church Choir on her seventh album,&#8221;Higher and Higher.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At the 2011 Grammy Awards, the album was honored as a sixth-time entrant, an early form of recognition in the process toward becoming an official nominee. But the record didn\u2019t yield sales on par with her previous collections, which have sold more than 1 million copies combined.<\/p>\n<p>Carlebach attributes the response to interreligious fear, which her father also endured. \u201cThe back-up singers on his first album were from the churches my father loved to visit in New York City, but nobody spoke about it,\u201d Carlebach says.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, Carlebach has been increasingly public about her ongoing interfaith collaboration with the choir. At her invitation, the choir\u2019s Reverend Roger Hambrick participated in Lab\/Shul\u2019s Yom Kippur afternoon services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was awesome. He sang solo and with her and it was very moving,\u201d Lau-Lavie says. \u201cThey got the crowd of 1,000 on their feet just before Neila. There were many tears.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Carlebach looks at her mission in the aftermath of her father\u2019s, their style is one and the same.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are trying new things and breaking barriers,\u201d Carlebach said. \u201cThat is definitely who he was and the kind of person I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>(Lisa Alcalay Klug is the author of \u201cHot Mamalah\u201d and \u201cCool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe.\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Neshama%20Carlebach%3A%20following%20her%20father%27s%20footsteps\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8790,8795,661,8788,4036,659],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10094"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10097,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10094\/revisions\/10097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}