Shlomo Carlebach

Shlomo Carlebach was born on January 14, 1925, in Berlin, Germany, to Hartwig Naftali Carlebach, an Orthodox rabbi, and grew up alongside a twin brother, Rabbi Eli Chaim Carlebach, and a sister, Shulamith Levovitz. His family departed Germany in 1931, residing first in Baden bei Wien, Austria, and then in Switzerland by 1933. Descended from old German rabbinical dynasties, Carlebach would go on to become an American rabbi, musician, and Broadway book writer widely known by the honorific Reb Shlomo and the nickname "the Singing Rabbi."

Carlebach pursued his religious education at Yeshiva Torah Vodaath and Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn, New York, and at Beth Medrash Gevoha in Lakewood, New Jersey, studying under Rabbis Shlomo Heiman and Aharon Kotler. He was regarded as one of Kotler's most accomplished students and frequently led services as a hazzan during his yeshiva years. He received rabbinic ordination, known as semikha, from Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner. In 1950, he established a small Torah learning group called T.S.G.G., an acronym for "Taste And See God Is Good." That same year, while attending a Hebrew language ulpan class at the Jewish Theological Seminary, he played Hasidic melodies on the piano and was heard by Sara Schafler-Kelman, who invited him to perform at the Hillel Center on Convent Avenue — an event she billed as "The Place of Music in the Hassidic Tradition" and which marked his first invited public performance.

From 1951 to 1954, Carlebach served as one of the first emissaries of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher rebbe, who directed him to use his abilities on college campuses to reconnect Jewish youth to their heritage. He had previously been a disciple of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, the sixth Chabad-Lubavitch rebbe. Carlebach departed the movement in 1954 after the rebbe disapproved of his non-traditional methods. Also in 1951, he began learning English through a program at Columbia University, having spoken primarily Yiddish beforehand. The distinctive grammar he developed — blending Yiddish and English — became a hallmark of his speech and later influenced the language of his followers and the broader neo-Hasidic movement.

Carlebach began composing songs in the late 1950s, drawing primarily on verses from the Tanakh and the Siddur. Despite composing thousands of songs, he was unable to read musical notation. Several of his melodies became widely adopted standards in Jewish communities, among them Am Yisrael Chai, composed in the mid-1960s in response to the plight of Soviet Jewry, as well as Pitchu Li and Borchi Nafshi. His songs were characterized by relatively short, accessible melodies set to traditional texts, and they were taken up in prayer services at synagogues around the world. In 1969, his song Ve'haer Eneinu, performed by the Shlosharim, won third prize at Israel's annual Hasidic Song Festival. He also served as rabbi of the Carlebach Shul on West 79th Street in New York City and continued to record albums of original melodies throughout his career. In 1954, the Atlanta Southern Israelite reported that Carlebach had been named technical advisor on the music for a theatrical production of The Dybbuk.

In 1972, Carlebach married Elaine Neila Glick, a teacher. They had two daughters, Nedara and Neshama. Neshama Carlebach became a singer and songwriter in her own right, incorporating new adaptations of her father's melodies. Carlebach lived at various points in Manhattan, San Francisco, Toronto, and Mevo Modi'im, a moshav he founded in Israel.

Carlebach is credited as the book writer for Soul Doctor, the Broadway musical based on his life. The production, written by Daniel Wise, was first presented off-Broadway in 2008 and subsequently staged in New Orleans in 2010. It had an additional off-Broadway run at New York Theatre Workshop in the summer of 2012, during which Eric Anderson received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Carlebach. Soul Doctor opened on Broadway on August 15, 2013.

Carlebach died of a heart attack on October 20, 1994, while his plane remained on the ground at LaGuardia Airport in New York. His body was flown to Israel and buried at Har HaMenuchot. Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau delivered a eulogy at the funeral, where mourners sang Carlebach's songs, including Chasdei Hashem Ki Lo Samnu. An annual memorial service is held at his grave on the 16th of Cheshvan. On February 27, 2022, Carlebach was posthumously inducted into the inaugural class of the Jewish Music Hall of Fame. Following his death, accusations of sexual abuse were published against him in Lilith Magazine.