From the author: "Thanks to Mr. Stuart Wax who organized Reb Shlomo's trip to Russia, we have many hours of high-quality video footage from this tour. If you would like to be part of sponsoring a documentary based on this journey, email us at info@carlebachlegacy.com"
In Leningrad, on this Thursday morning of Sept. 21, 1989, Shlomo arranged for people to be called up to the Torah. People came up with their Russian names, and on the spot, Shlomo would suggest a Jewish name. For some, this was the first time in their lives that they ever heard a Torah reading, and tears rolled down from their eyes. Joel Segal, a San Francisco attorney who joined the tour, exclaimed: “It was amazing… I've never seen such joy and enthusiasm in my entire life.
As the women’s section in the upstairs balcony was crowded, Shlomo asked for the women to come downstairs and sit behind a makeshift mechitza of chairs. Thus you can see the women here at the end of this video coming to kiss the Torah.
At the concert in Leningrad, Reb Shlomo asked the crowd, whom do you think is on this stage? It is not only the band you see here, but all our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He exhorted his listeners to go out and proudly say hello to everyone on the street. Let all know that we are Jewish. On Motzei Shabbat, September 23, 1989, Shlomo and the band organized an after-midnight Selichot program at the Leningrad Railroad Station.
In a video interview with Zachary Goldman, Shlomo exclaimed: The concerts were “fire, fire,” there was so much holiness. Stuart Wax recalls Shlomo exhorting his entourage before embarking on the trip, “many of our Russian brothers have never smiled before; so few of them have known real joy. It is our mission to make them smile; it is our mission to bring them joy!”
In a report written February 22, 1990 to Abraham Kalikow of the Rich Foundation, David Waksberg summed up the success of Carlebach’s Music Tour: We reached approximately 60,000 Jews in the Soviet Union. We produced a major Jewish cultural event in each city visited by our tour. In Leningrad and in Kiev, Shlomo led services at the synagogue… The tour succeeded not only in content, in bringing Yiddishkeit to Soviet Jews, but in promoting self-help cultural renewal efforts by Soviet Jewry groups.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
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Please note that what you wrote here is taken from pages 278-279 of the book, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach: Life, Mission and Legacy written by Dr. Natan Ophir,
Please note that what you wrote here is taken from the book by Dr. Natan Ophir, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach: Life, Mission and Legacy, pages 278-279.
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