As Yonatan Razel became more chareidi and moved over into the yeshivish world, learning in the Mir and then in Rav Yitzchak Berkovits’s kollel, he thought maybe he should change his musical style to something that was more standard chassidic. “But Yochi Briskman’s advice still rings in my ears,” says Razel. “He told me, ‘Don’t be anyone else. Continue doing what you have to do — you can’t be who you’re not.’ I think that my old audiences are following my journey and the musical style is like a thread that runs through it.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 732)