Rav Shlomo Carlebach (Cheshvan 16, 5755 / 1994 - 30th Yahrzeit)
Rav Shlomo Carlebach was the foremost Jewish songwriter in the second half of the twentieth century, who used his music to inspire Jews around the world. Over his sixty-nine years, he lived in Manhattan, San Francisco, Toronto and Moshav Or Modiin, Eretz Yisrael. In a recording career that stretched over thirty years, Rav Shlomo sang his songs on more than twenty-five albums. Rav Shlomo Carlebach was born in Berlin, where his father, Naftoli, was an Orthodox leader. The family, which fled the Nazis in 1933, lived in Switzerland before coming to New York in 1939. His father became the Rav of a small synagogue on West 79th Street, Congregation Kehillas Jacob; Rav Shlomo Carlebach and his twin brother, Eli Chaim, took over the shul after their father’s petira in 1967. He studied at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in Brooklyn and at the Bais Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey. From 1951 to 1954, he worked as a traveling emissary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson. His singing career began in Greenwich Village, where he met Bob Dylan and other folk singers, and moved to Berkeley for the 1966 Folk Festival. After his appearance, he decided to remain in the Bay Area to reach out to what he called “lost Jewish souls”, runaways and drug-addicted youths.
