Rav Shlomo Carlebach

Early years

Rav Shlomo Carlebach zt"l was born in Berlin on January 14, 1925. His father, Rav Naftoli (Hartwig Naftali) Carlebach (1889–1967), was an Orthodox rabbi and leader there, and the family descended from old rabbinical dynasties of pre-war Germany. Shlomo had a twin brother, Rav Eli Chaim Carlebach, and a sister, Shulamith Levovitz.

The family left Germany before the Nazis took full power, living for a time in Baden bei Wien in Austria and then in Switzerland. In 1938 Shlomo went to learn in a yeshiva in Lithuania, and that year his father became rav of Congregation Kehillas Jacob, a small shul on West 79th Street on New York's Upper West Side. Shlomo reached New York in 1939, by way of Great Britain.

Torah and leadership

His yeshiva studies took him to Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn, and Bais Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey. Great Torah teachers recognized his ability, among them Rav Shlomo Heiman and Rav Aharon Kotler, the Rosh Yeshiva of Lakewood, who counted him among his finest talmidim. Rav Yitzchok Hutner gave him semichah (rabbinic ordination) and is said to have regretted that Rav Shlomo chose song and outreach over a life as a scholar and teacher, seeing it as a loss for the Torah world. During his yeshiva years he was often asked to lead the davening as a chazzan.

In 1950 he started a small learning group called TSGG, the initials of "Taste and See Hashem Is Good." That year he attended a Hebrew ulpan at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he would play Chassidic melodies on the piano. Sara Schafler-Kelman, who heard him, asked him to perform at the Hillel Center on Convent Avenue, singing Chassidic melodies. He agreed, though reluctantly. Her poster announced the evening as a talk on music within Chassidic tradition, and it was his first invited performance. Years later he told her that she had given him a title for his life's work.

In 1951 he entered a special Columbia University program to learn English; until then he had spoken mostly Yiddish. He became fluent only at twenty-six, and developed an unusual grammar that mixed Yiddish and English. It became his hallmark and later shaped the language of his followers and of many in the neo-Chassidic movement.

He became a talmid of Rav Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, the sixth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch. From 1951 to 1954 he served as one of the first shluchim (emissaries) of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who encouraged him to bring his gifts to college campuses to reconnect Jews with Yiddishkeit, though the Rebbe later disapproved of some of the unconventional methods he used. Rav Shlomo left the movement in 1954.

Song and teachings

Toward the close of the 1950s he started composing songs, mostly settings of verses from Tanach and the siddur to his own melodies. He composed thousands of songs, though he could not read music. Many became standards across the Jewish world, among them Am Yisroel Chai, written in the mid-1960s for the plight of Soviet Jewry, Pitchu Li, and Borchi Nafshi.

His singing career started in Greenwich Village, where he met folk singers including Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. In 1966 he appeared at the Berkeley Folk Festival, although he had actually been making recordings earlier, and one of the organizers invited him after hearing one. Following the festival he chose to remain around San Francisco, where he set out to reach those he called lost Jewish souls, meaning runaways and young people addicted to drugs. Local followers opened a center, the House of Love and Prayer, in San Francisco's Inner Richmond district, offering song, dance and communal gatherings to disaffected youth. People began calling him the Singing Rabbi. Many feel that through his music and his caring he reconnected thousands of Jewish young people and adults with their heritage.

In 1969 his song Ve'haer Eineinu, sung by the Shlosharim, won third prize at Israel's annual Chassidic Song Festival. He recorded more than twenty-five albums, among them some with a more liturgical sound, and the musicians who worked with him in those years added a wider range of instruments and even a psychedelic touch. His songs, with their short melodies and traditional words, were easy to learn, and they entered the davening of shuls around the world. He spent much of his time in Eretz Yisroel, living in Moshav Me'or Modi'im, which he founded.

Back in New York he also became known for his stories and Chassidic teachings, which he spoke at his concerts and which were rooted in Chassidus and Kabbalah. Students have published some of his teachings alongside his recordings. He spread the teachings of Chabad and Breslov, and brought wider attention to the writings of the Ishbitzer Rebbe, Rav Mordechai Yosef Leiner, and Rav Kalonymus Kalman Shapira of Piaseczno.

Later years and passing

After the passing of his father in 1967, Rav Shlomo and his twin brother, Rav Eli Chaim, took over the rabbinate of Kehillas Jacob, which became known as the Carlebach Shul. Rav Shlomo continued to perform at concerts and to record albums of his own melodies. Elaine Neila Glick, a teacher, became his wife in 1972. Neshama Carlebach, one of their two daughters along with Nedara (Dari), is a singer and songwriter in her own right, building on her father's style and name.

Rav Shlomo suffered a fatal heart attack aboard a flight bound for Canada and passed away on 16 Cheshvan 5755 (October 20, 1994). He was sixty-nine. He was flown to Eretz Yisroel and buried on Har HaMenuchos in Yerushalayim. At the funeral the mourners sang his songs, including Chasdei Hashem Ki Lo Samnu, and Rav Yisroel Meir Lau, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, spoke in his memory. A memorial service is held each year on 16 Cheshvan at his kever, and further memorial events take place throughout Eretz Yisroel and around the world.

Legacy

Many regard Rav Shlomo as the leading Jewish religious songwriter of his century and as a pioneer of the baal teshuvah movement. Rav Jonathan Rosenblatt wrote that he changed what people expect from davening, from the formal and subdued to the uplifting and joyful, through elemental melodies and stories of saintliness, modesty and selflessness. Carlebach minyanim and gatherings continue in many cities and in remote places around the world.

Since his passing his music has been embraced by people of many faiths and is heard in shuls, Carlebach minyanim, churches and gospel choirs. Many musicians say they draw inspiration from him. Aharon Razel, Yehuda Green, Gili Houpt and Naftali Abramson are among them, as are Reva L'Sheva, Benyamin Steinberg, Moshav Band, Sam Glaser, Chaim-Dovid Saracik and Matisyahu.

Soul Doctor, a musical by Daniel Wise based on his life, was first presented off-Broadway in 2008, then in New Orleans in 2010. In the summer of 2012 it was a guest production at the New York Theatre Workshop, where Eric Anderson earned a Drama Desk nomination for playing Rav Shlomo. It opened on Broadway on August 15, 2013. A documentary film, You Never Know, directed by Boaz Shahak, was shown at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2008, and in 2014 an account of his last day was published. His teachings also fill a series of books titled The Torah Commentary of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, and the Shlomo Carlebach Foundation works to preserve his teachings, music and stories and to build communities that share the love and joy he radiated.

During his lifetime his path drew criticism. Because he had excelled in Gemara, many had hoped he would become a rosh yeshiva, and some resented his choice of song and outreach. Some of his public conduct, including singing together with women who were not relatives and affectionate touch, was seen as not in keeping with Orthodox standards. After his passing, allegations of improper conduct toward women, some dating back to the 1970s, were published. His followers rejected them, while others have asked whether his music should still be used. In 2018 his daughter Neshama addressed an open letter to women who had been hurt, saying that she accepts the fullness of who her father was, flaws included.