{"id":65908,"date":"2022-02-10T06:29:53","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T11:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=65908"},"modified":"2022-02-10T06:29:53","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T11:29:53","slug":"musical-planned-about-fred-neulander-a-rabbi-convicted-in-his-wifes-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/musical-planned-about-fred-neulander-a-rabbi-convicted-in-his-wifes-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Musical planned about Fred Neulander, a rabbi convicted in his wife\u2019s murder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(JTA) \u2014 A musical about a Philadelphia-area rabbi who had his wife murdered in 1994 is stirring painful memories among his former congregants.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_65909\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/FNeulandermug.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65909\" class=\"wp-image-65909 size-thumbnail lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/FNeulandermug-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65909\" class=\"wp-image-65909 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/FNeulandermug-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\"><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-65909\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neulander mug shot from New Jersey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Philadelphia Inquirer on Wednesday reported that the Gefen Playhouse in Los Angeles is set to debut \u201cA Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill,\u201d about Rabbi Fred Neulander, who was convicted in 2001 for hiring a man to bludgeon his wife, Carol, to death.<\/p>\n<p>Neulander, believed at the time to be the first rabbi tried in the United State for murder, was convicted after a second trial in 2001 and is serving 30 years to life. The case drew national headlines, and his trial was broadcast on Court TV.<\/p>\n<p>A number of the songs in the musical were posted recently on social media and taken down. The Gefen Playhouse describes the musical as \u201cwritten with humor and chutzpah\u201d by Matt Schatz, who grew up in the south New Jersey community of Cherry Hill where Neulander lived and worked.<\/p>\n<p>Schatz, an established playwright, said it was his job as an artist to ask questions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe rabbi was telling people how to be a person, how to be a Jew, and he turned out to be evil,\u201d Schatz told the Inquirer. \u201cHow do we reckon with that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A number of congregants of M\u2019kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, which Neulander founded in 1974, told the newspaper they did not think the time was ripe yet for a musical.<\/p>\n<p>The congregation\u2019s president, Drew Molotsky, himself a musical theater director, suggested in a statement that the musical was by definition exploitative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know nothing about the content of the play,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is our history. It involves our friends and our community, and it is very serious to us. To make light of it or to exploit it for entertainment value is not something we will ever condone.\u201d<\/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=\"Musical%20planned%20about%20Fred%20Neulander%2C%20a%20rabbi%20convicted%20in%20his%20wife%E2%80%99s%20murder\";<\/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":65909,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7122],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65908"}],"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=65908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65910,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65908\/revisions\/65910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}