In the fall of 1984, Nechama Silver plays her autoharp with Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach at a concert near Tel Aviv. (Photo credit Maayan Jaffe\/JNS.org)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Shlomo Carlebach\u2019s unbridled passion might account for why it has taken this long to begin to canonize his legacy. Solomon recounts the way that his rebbe could focus on whoever needed him at the time, that \u201cwhoever he was talking to, he became their best friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Solomon and wife Dina met Carlebach in California. Carlebach encouraged Solomon to learn in Israel and eventually to make aliyah, and then handpicked his family to live on the Carlebach moshav.<\/p>\n
Solomon recalled that when he arrived in Israel he was told by the Orthodox-affiliated Diaspora Yeshiva that his wedding to Dina was not valid, as they did not have a ketubah (Jewish marriage contract). He called Carlebach in a panic. The rabbi told him to get some wine and cake and meet him at the Shabbos House in Jerusalem at 1 a.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re waiting for Shlomo and then we see him coming down the block with 300 people. \u2026We were singing and dancing until daylight,\u201dSolomon told JNS.org<\/em>.<\/p>\nCarlebach is best known for his Jewish music. \u201cHe\u2019s universally accepted as the father of Jewish music,\u201dsaid Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman of Mevo Modi\u2019in.<\/p>\n
Leslie Pomerantz and Michael Hoffman are both Jewish song leaders. Pomerantz told JNS.org <\/em>that Carlebach made Jewish music \u201caccessible\u201dand taught song leaders the value of using music for engagement.<\/p>\n\u201cFor him, it was not a performance, but an inclusive process,\u201dPomerantz said.<\/p>\n
Hoffman said he was raised at Jewish summer camp, and when he became a song leader he envisioned Carlebach to be another Debbie Friedman, whose music had a significant influence on the liturgies of Reform and Conservative Judaism. He recalled that when saw a picture of the late rabbi, \u201cI was like, \u2018Wow!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoffman described Carlebach\u2019s music as \u201ctimeless\u201dand noted how people have forgotten that many immensely popular niggunim(tunes or melodies) were in fact composed by Carlebach. For example, it was Carlebach who in 1965 invented \u201cAm Yisrael Chai\u201dfor the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry movement, which was later adopted for Jewish causes as a theme of resilience and perseverance. Other famed Carlebach compositions include\u201cDavid Melech Yisrael,\u201d\u201cOd Yeshoma,\u201dand \u201cEsa Einai.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recent books work to shed light on Carlebach\u2019s Torah teachings, which followers say were the basis for his tunes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t music for music\u2019s sake. It was a part of a bigger Torah vision he wanted to share with the world,\u201dsaid Trugman.<\/p>\n
Author Shlomo Katz told JNS.org<\/em> he first connected with Carlebach\u2019s teachings at the age of 14 when a classmate shared his headphones during recess.<\/p>\n\u201cI put on the earphones and I was transported instantly,\u201dKatz recalled regarding the music and teaching he heard. \u201cI knew my whole world was about to change because my neshama (soul) was more alive than ever at that moment\u2014and it never stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Katz has devoted his professional life to collecting, transcribing, and teaching Carlebach\u2019s Torah teachings, which can be found on tens of thousands of tapes and in hundreds of journals across the world.<\/p>\n
Solomon said he used to learn Talmud with Carlebach every morning at 5 a.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said things a gaon (genius) would say,\u201dsaid Solomon. \u201cThose special mornings taught me a whole other aspect of learning Torah.”<\/p>\n
But Carlebach\u2019s legacy is not without controversy. He faced allegations that became public in a 1998 Lilith <\/em>magazine article, claiming he routinely made sexually suggestive late-night phone calls to female acquaintances and that he physically molested numerous women over the course of decades. Such accusations naturally provoked fierce controversy about how to remember a man many considered a saint.<\/p>\n\u201cCan you imagine, in a period of a month, after one of his yahrzeits (anniversary of death), getting 50 phone calls about the same person from all over the world? He has victims in Israel, the U.S., Australia, South Africa\u2014any place he went, he had victims,\u201dsaid Vicki Polin of the Awareness Center, a non-profit with the mission of ending sexual violence in the Jewish community.\u201cHe did a lot of kiruv (outreach), but what about those who converted to other faiths\u2014walked away completely\u2014because of this assault?\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlebach\u2019s followers have rejected those allegations. And this generation, said Katz, is hungrier than ever for his message.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s youth won\u2019t compromise for anything less than something that touches the depths of their own souls, which is really what [Carlebach] does through his teachings\u2014so mind-blowing and deep, but in the same instance\u2026he puts the sweet inside, so it goes down in a way that resonates,\u201dKatz said.<\/p>\n
Nechama Silver recalled meeting Carlebach in the 1970s at a coffee shop concert in Pennsylvania. She said he \u201cturned me on to yiddishkeit (Jewishness).\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember saying, \u2018Is this guy for real?\u2019\u201dshe said. \u201cHe is the realest thing you will ever meet.\u201d<\/p>\n
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