The presence of the Carlebach movement on the web has changed drastically over the years. I have been tracking it for years. Let’s take it step by step.
First and foremost is [www.rebshlomo.org], which is the Shir L’Shlomo’s, the Carlebach Foundation’s, main page. It is based in Jerusalem. There is or was, My Humble Abode too.
The old Rebshlomo site, had extensive links to musmachim (people who have ordination or smicha from Shlomo –reputedly 36 as per the idea of lamed vav or the socalled 36 hidden and holy people who God needs to stop from destroying the world) and it also had links to worldwide organizations that are linked to the movement and do Carlebach minyanim or prayer quorums.
It also had a page for Moshav Me’or Modi’in which is the Israeli home of the followers of the late rabbi. All of that is gone except the main site. The former page for Modi’in had email contact information for the base in Israel and it also had listings about
Ben Tzion Solomon a noted Carlebach follower and musician.
Furthermore, the Carlebach Shul still has a page and they have listings of events and from what I can tell, Rabbi Saffrin (spelling may be wrong) is still listed as one of the rabbis who teach on Sunday and from what I can tell again, he is deceased.
As Rabbi Saffrin accused me of triggering off all the carnage in Israel by a letter I had published in Haaretz calling for the end of the Haredi exemptions for armed forces service (I call the exempt soldiers “parasites that have been sucking the blood of people like me since time immemorial.) The rabbi claimed that it was right after my letter was printed that the bombs started going off and he “had to give a very powerful speech” which actually did nothing to stop the violence anyway.
Another website that has disappeared recently actually was
[www.carlebachfamily.com] It had information about Shlomo, his ex-wife Neila, Nedara and Neshama Carlebach the latter two of whom are the late rabbi’s daughters and Carlebach recording and terms of licensing to do songs based on his music.
Out of all the sites and organizations the only one that I think is self-sustaining and economically viable is the site of Neshama at [www.neshamacarlebach.com]. Neshama’s music career has taken off and she sings to Orthodox and other types of Jewish organizations as well as Christian groups too.
In fact a church is going to be singing the title cut on her next recording “One and One.” It’s noteworthy as her father’s first recording, Haneshama Lach had the church of Father Divine on it and that was a church that followed the leader as a god. Please note my use of a lower case “g”.
Even the shul has had financial trouble over the years and as I was a member back in ’94- ‘95. I know that once someone donated 25K dollars to keep it going. Also Shlomo had been giving a large portion of his income to keep the shul afloat over the years.
I am wondering where all of this is headed and I would appreciate some help monitoring the situation. I am doing the best I can but I have some trepidation on relaying false information and I think the movement is cultic depending on the follower and on the leader’s orientation. Remember, Shlomo was the Chabad’s first emissary along with Zalman Schacter Shalomi.
Many of Shlomo’s recordings are now out of print as demand for him is lessening. His daughter as far as I can tell is doing OK. It should be notes that some Orthodox organizations let her do women’s only concerts and some Orthodox Jews don’t like her singing to non-Orthodox audiences. I admire someone who doesn’t want to starve to
death for the glory of “hashem”. Ie. the god of the Jews. Lower case ‘h’ and ‘g’ here too. I no longer believe in all of this.
I heard it quoted in Jerusalem during my last visit (I was at Aish Hatorah) that Neshama only sings for entertainment. And that sort of rubs me wrong because to my way of thinking she is not “Barbara Streisand” if you know my point here.
Some years back I was at the Shul and Neila came up to me with an angry and incensed look on her face. I stared her down.
It should also be noted that my mother had a Chabad booklet on Chanukah and she once commented to me “there should be free Jewish education for all Jewish children.” Well no one does that least of all Chabad. My mother is a really nice lady but I think that Chabad gave her some bad advice to willingly seek martyrdom if need be for “this pure and holy religion” which I found out it isn’t according to Rabbi Shea Hecht.
As I have written a number of times, this isn’t just about chicken soup on Erev Shabbos. It’s about politics and it’s very volatile especially right now.