evy Falkowitz’s song “Hanisturois,” from his Achakeh Lo debut album, is a song of simple faith with a directness that speaks to the heart. “Hidden things are for Hashem… the revealed is ours forever,” says the pasuk in parshas Nitzavim. And, the song continues, “We believe that everything is for the best, but Hashem, we also want to be able to see Your revealed chesed with our own eyes!” It was written for a family grieving their mother, who had passed away two months before her son’s wedding. Levy Falkowitz was asked to sing the new song together with the crowd at the chasunah. As this niggun of emunah uplifted the crowd in their acceptance of a difficult nisayon, he realized the power of the concept.
“Of course we really, really believe that everything we experience is Hashem’s chesed, but we still beg ‘har’einu Hashem chasdecha’ to be able to perceive Hashem’s ultimate goodness, to be given only things we can understand, and to be protected from harsh decrees,” says Falkowitz. “I went over to the composer, Mordechai Elazar Hirsch, and on the spot asked if I could buy the song.”
“We like our music geshmak, with a danceable beat”
The Story Behind the Song: Rabi Shimon
By Riki Goldstein April 16, 2018
I
t’s one holy day in a holy place that Beri Weber tries not to miss: Lag B’omer with Rabi Shimon. Two years ago though, he had a last minute emergency and couldn’t travel to Meron. “One of my mashpiim advised me to go to a local kever of a rebbe, so that I would be able to connect to Reb Shimon there, and so I took a hitch with someone who was going to the kever of the Ribnitzer.” On the way, Beri was talking to the driver, and he mentioned that he had decided to work on a song in honor of Rabi Shimon Bar Yochai. The driver made one request: He had a son whom he was very worried about — could Beri mention his name at the kever and daven for his spiritual recovery? Beri gladly agreed, and even offered to dedicate the song he was working on to the boy’s soul.
When Beri asked Reb Pinky Weber for a song in honor of Rabi Shimon, the veteran composer offered a light but sparkling tune to the words that promise the eternal endurance of Torah. “I loved it. The words ‘Ki lo sishokach mipi zaro’ — the words inscribed over the tziyun and the end letters of which spell out the word ‘Yochai’ —are especially resonant for a Breslover, as there is a whole Torah in Likutei Moharan on this pasuk.”
That summer, Beri was in Tzfas for an event and met a group of teenagers — and he soon figured out that one of the boys was the son of that Lag B’omer driver.
“Three weeks later, the father called to tell me that his son had turned 18 and wanted to come back to America and do teshuvah. That was the week I was working on the final arrangements for ‘Rabi Shimon.’ The day it was ready, the boy came back!”
Sometimes it’s the unsung, uncelebrated deeds that boost a singer into the limelight. Who helped advance these popular entertainers with an unforgettable yet enduring gesture?
Mic Drop
By Riki Goldstein April 11, 2018
Nothing is real besides the Ribbono shel Olam
Y
oeli Klein’s favorite wedding song fills all spaces with Hashem’s light
The song “Memale Kol Almin” was originally composed by Rav Eliezer Shlomo Schick of Breslov ( known as the Mohorosh) about 40 years ago and was discovered after his passing in 2015. Rabbi Meir Duvid Farkas, a chazzan and Breslov talmid, popularized the soul-stirring song (“Ein shum metzius mibaladecha Yisbarach — nothing really exists in the world except for Hashem…”) the following year on his album Tzadikim, giving it a leibedig finale with the famous Shlomo Carlebach niggun that became an anthem for positivity (the one with the added words “Ma shehaya haya, ha’ikar lehatchil mehatchalah — Whatever was, was, the important thing is to start anew.”) With Reb Meir Duvid’s permission, composer Shaya Gross added a hora part to the song with a compelling beat that makes it into a dance niggun as well.
“Singing this at weddings, together with the chassan and the mechutanim is very moving for me,” says singer Yoeli Klein, who re-recorded the popular new version. “Yes, they are building a new house, but really the Ribbono shel Olam is doing everything. Nothing is real besides Him, and as they are moving forward to set up a new Yiddishe home, we’re singing that it is all Him, the Memalei Kol Almin.”
“From the feedback I received on this song, the message — not fretting over what was and just moving on — went straight to the heart of a lot of people”
Veteran producer Dovid Nachman Golding hosts a walk down musical memory lane
There’s Always a Time for Music
By Riki Goldstein January 3, 2018
SHEYA MENDLOWITZ wouldn’t let them close down
I
n the summer of 1986, Mordechai Ben David’s daughter was at Camp Faiga, right across the street from Camp HASC. On visiting day, Rabbi Stern from HASC asked the Werdygers if Mordechai could come over and sing for the special-needs children. Mordechai was a bit apprehensive at first, but all that melted away once he felt the energy of the children’s excitement.
The following summer, MBD asked Sheya Mendlowitz to accompany him to sing for the children of Camp HASC.
“When we arrived,” Sheya recalls, “the children were waiting for Mordche outside in the parking lot. There was such excitement as we got out of the car. Then we headed into the dining room where the lower functioning children waited. The second Mordche started to sing, they came to life. All the children started to move and clap their hands and jump if they could.”
Sheya was so inspired that he asked Moish Kahn, the camp director, if he could come up to Camp HASC with his family for Shabbos. As the Mendlowitzes were about to leave, Moish remarked that it might be the last summer for the camp, as government funding was about to be cut.
“I was horrified. ‘You can’t close down!’ I told him. ‘For these children and their families, camp is an essential respite.’ And then, Hashem gave me the idea of a benefit concert. The following Wednesday, Moish came into New York for a meeting, and the HASC concert came into being. Today I’m no longer involved, but the camp is still open because of the funding generated by that idea.”
ELI GERSTNER guards his secrets
T
hree decades after the first Camp HASC concert, the annual event has been updated with technological enhancements including an immense custom-designed stage with its own elevators, screens, and lights. But for last year’s A Time for Music 30, the biggest surprise was that the show’s lineup wasn’t released in advance. According to producer Eli Gerstner, the idea came from indefatigable Camp HASC chairman Jeremy Strauss.
“He told me, ‘We’ve had the number-one Jewish concert lineup for 30 years, so this year, why not focus on the children and the camp instead of the performers?’ It sounded insane, but the concert sold out faster than ever before. And this year they’re selling even quicker,” Gerstner says. “Maybe one in a hundred callers asks about the lineup. Everyone else just says, ‘Hi, I want tickets.’ ”
But last year, at the dress rehearsal, Gerstner found his phone bombarded with excited messages about Avraham Fried’s presence which hadn’t been publicized. “I looked around and I realized that one of the musicians had taken a picture of Fried on his phone and it had gone viral. I had to announce that all phones needed to be put away.”
YISROEL LAMM’s overture to the industry
O
nce Yisroel Lamm’s overture begins, you know A Time for Music is here again. “When I composed it, I felt that we were entering a new phase in the evolution of our music industry,” the veteran composer and conductor explains. “The first HASC concert was a gamble, but we were sold out well before the evening. A full hall always encourages you to perform your very best. The overture was an innovative performance in this new era for Jewish music. Interestingly, the intro, which I hadn’t given that much thought to, became much more famous than the elaborate middle which was much more invested.”
No More Sabbaticals
I
f you’ve ever gone through Camp HASC’s A Time for Music albums in order, you’ve probably tracked the ascendance of the Jewish world’s musical stars. Looking carefully, though, you’ll notice that Number 7 breaks the concert mold, featuring a musical play instead, entitled The World of Chelm. Yisroel Lamm, conductor of Neginah Orchestra and coproducer of the concert, remembers that year well. “I was working with Sheya Mendlowitz and we figured we’d do something different for the seventh year. So we put on a musical play. We went all out, top professionals joined us, and the evening went down very well. But we never did it again. Look — even Coca-Cola tried changing their recipe once.…”
