The Kosher Bookworm :The Carlebach Legacy at his 18th yahrtzeit

“In 1959 Shlomo Carlebach released his first album – Haneshoma Loch [Songs of My Soul], -- which was an instant hit [selling 5,000 copies the first week] and completely revolutionized Jewish music. ‘The first record caused a musical furor both in the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds,’ recalls musicologist Velvel Pasternak, the foremost authority on contemporary Jewish music in the United States. ‘Rather than the Eastern European gestalt that had characterized Jewish music up until then and with which American Jewish youth couldn’t identify, Shlomo Carlebach’s music was written in an American idiom. He seemed to cut completely with the past. His first record was arranged by Harry Belafonte’s arranger, and appeared to bear the imprint of American folk music. His genius was that the ordinary guy on the street could relate to his music and sing it with passion. Thus his music became the cornerstone of American Jewish music, known to every single Jewish bandleader in America, sung in Orthodox synagogues, Conservative havurot, Reform summer camps, and Chassidic shtiebels. He was a musical visionary, very advanced, and his influence on Jewish music has been immeasurable and everlasting.’”

[Holy Brother, Jason Aronson, 1997, edited by Yitta Halberstam Mandelbaum ].

This quote by Velvel Pasternak, of Cedarhurst and member of the Young Israel of Woodmere, just about sums it all up. The impression given here can be found upon the lips of just about every one whose has ever heard the voice, song and soul of the late, great Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, whose 18th yahrtzeit was commemorated this past Thursday.

And there are others……..

Among, for me personally, the most memorable of legacies of Reb Shlomo was the following, quoting from Mandelbaum’s eloquent biography of Reb Shlomo: