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On the Way to Sunset
The last decades of Carlebach's life
From the mid-1970s onwards, his impresarios began to market him in shows titled: "Hasidic Pop" – an expression that has since become a brand in Israeli music, symbolizing the original blend that Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach brought.
He performed on one stage together with singers of all genres, representing to his listeners and in their ears the new genre with the old taste.
But by then, he was no longer alone in the Hasidic pop arena.
Other bands entered through the gate he opened and made use of the new genre, such as groups from America called: "Avnei HaKotel" (Stones of the Western Wall) band, or the group "Bnei HaRabbanim" (The Rabbis' Sons). Within the Israeli military ensembles, the "IDF Rabbinate Choir" became increasingly prominent, and from it emerged "Tzemed Re'im" and other kippah-wearing singers who went on to conquer the secular sectors.
In the bustling commotion of 1970s and 1980s music, during years of upheaval in Israeli society, between euphoria and depression – the first harbingers of modern Jewish song appeared, more rhythmic than what was customary until then. Such as Orthodox Jewish children's choirs called by the brand name "Pirchei" (Pirchei London, Pirchei Toronto, Pirchei Jerusalem, etc.), and new singing stars, such as: Mordechai Ben David or Avraham Fried, who emerged from the Haredi sector – began to push aside cantorial music and cantors and created songs and albums with modern rhythms.
The new stars produced albums with elaborate studio recordings, with diverse musical instruments, and also invested in performances. They were suitable for the Haredi sector, and also for the National Religious, who were already on their way to religious strengthening and could connect with them.
Carlebach remained with his guitar. A wandering singer moving from country to country, from continent to continent. With the same repertoire of songs that recalled his great days, still filling halls, but gradually being pushed aside from the main stage.
1970 – Carlebach performing in Paris, France, the song "Lema'an Achai V're'ai" To listen – click on the image
or here for the YouTube link
In the late 1970s, the hippies disappeared from the streets of San Francisco, and the "counter-culture" faded, along with the music of the Sixties and the flower children.
Carlebach adhered to his path, loyal to their ideas and his music.
He did not stop singing and did not stop promoting unconditional love between people, and bringing lost souls back to the Jewish home. In his performances, he added long spoken segments that included words of Torah and Kabbalah, and tales in the style of the Hasidic rebbes of Europe. With these materials, he traveled throughout Israel and the world, gathering the dispersed from the four corners of the earth. He and his guitar, he and his arms embracing every man and every woman, he and his lips murmuring love and prayer.
Everywhere he went, he held a holy book in his hand – to signal to his surroundings that he was no longer just a singer but a rabbi and a scholar engaged in Torah study and teaching. This was an image intended to replace the image of the Dancing Rabbi, and to emphasize his other abilities more. He published books and video recordings dealing with tales of rabbis and rebbes. Stories with a lesson and a moral. Jewish, of course. But also universal.
In Israel, he found close allies – the Breslov Hasidim, whose ideas resonated with his own, and who, like him, used music to bring people closer. Their followers were considered outliers in the Haredi world and resembled his own followers – in their appearance and inner being. And like him, they also paved a unique way in the growing religious society in Israel.
Carlebach renewed another alliance with the Religious Zionists.
He frequently performed in the settlements established in Judea and Samaria, where he was initially welcomed by "freaky" settlers – young people with long hair and side-curls cascading down their cheeks, who sanctified living in caravans, in splendid isolation on rocky hills. Later, they were joined by the bourgeois settlers, veterans of the communities who remembered his youthful kindness and were willing to accept the unconventional rabbi with his curls lengthening to his shoulders, with the beads on his neck, who never stopped embracing every man and woman he met.
This was an alliance of outcasts – between a controversial public in Israeli society in those years, and the Rabbi who did not receive institutional recognition in religious society and felt persecuted by conservative rabbis.
1974 – Rabbi Carlebach with young Religious Zionists On the eve of their ascent to establish settlements in Samaria ("Sebastia")
In the 1980s, the religious sector in Israel grew and expanded, splitting into Haredi sectors and National Religious sectors, and among them, sub-sectors moving along the spectrum between the two extremes. There, on that spectrum, Carlebach found his most loyal home audience – a core of believers in him and his teachings. Among them were Baal Teshuva (returnees to Judaism), or those who did not connect with religious conservatism that was too strict for their taste.
They were called "Carlebachim," after their trailblazer and spiritual leader.
One group from the hard core of the Carlebachim, Sixties refugees from America, immigrated to Israel and established a moshav, Mevo Modi'im, which conducts its daily life according to his legacy.
Others established synagogues named after him, "Carlebach Minyanim."
Carlebach never changed his style – neither in music nor in his way of life.
Until his last days, he remained a "Hippie" in his external and internal appearance. He preached love and prayer, Judaism and bringing hearts closer, devotion to faith and music.
He shared his love with the whole world, but kept little for himself.
At a late age, he started a family, marrying a woman who bore him two daughters, with whom he lived in Canada. But wandering was stronger than him. The inevitable urge to embrace the whole world and sing before every person – did not allow him to stay in one place, and he again boarded planes and moved from community to community, even at the cost of his family falling apart before his eyes.
In 1994, while on one of the planes, moments after takeoff, he suffered a heart attack and passed away.
Shlomo Carlebach with members of the moshav "Mevo Modi'im" established by his followers
Carlebach passed away, but then, only after his death, "Carlebach's Legacy" was revived, and it took surprisingly unique directions.
About this, and more, in the next chapter:
This is the Sixth chapter in the fascinating biography of the Hasidic singer Shlomo Carlebach – a pioneer and trailblazer who laid the foundation for today's Hasidic music genre.
To read all chapters of the series in the table of contents at the following link:
(10 chapters - separate link for each chapter)
Research, writing, and editing:: Shlomi Rosenfeld