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Hasidism in the Age of Aquarius: The House of Love and Prayer in San Francisco, 1967–1977

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2018

Yaakov Ariel
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Extract

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Americans encountered an unexpected group of people who, at first sight, seemed unreal: Hasidic hippies. Conceiving of Hasidic Judaism as being incompatible with the spirit of the era and of hippie culture as being far removed from the Jewish tradition, most Jews could not comprehend how anyone could try to amalgamate two such opposing cultures.

Many of the young Hasidic hippies were affiliated with or influenced by the House of Love and Prayer (HLP), a Jewish outreach center that operated in San Francisco between 1967 and 1977 and promoted the mixture of traditional Hasidic Judaism with the counter-culture. It represented a new generation in American religious life: the baby boomers, with their spiritual journeys and cultural preferences, which included attempts to unite religious traditions and cultural trends that just a few years earlier had seemed too different to bridge. The HLP promoted the return to tradition and the embracing of the mystical and supernatural elements of Judaism. Together with other groups that emerged in the late 1960s and 1970s, the HLP helped bring about a revolution in the practicing of the Jewish tradition, one that gave expression to the style and values of the Jewish members of the counterculture.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religion and American Culture , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , Summer 2003 , pp. 139 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture 2003

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References

Notes

1. On the religious spirit of the age, see Roof, Wade Clark, A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journey of the Baby Boom Generation (New York: HarperCollins, 1993)Google Scholar; Roof, Wade Clark, Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999)Google Scholar; and Wuthnow, Robert, After Heaven: Spirituality in America since the 1950s (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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3. On neo-Orthodoxy, see Breuer, Mordechai, Judische Orthodoxie in Deutschen Reich, 1871-1918 (Frankfurt am Main: Athenéaum, 1986)Google Scholar.

4. Carlebach's father was, like many neo-Hasidic rabbis, “Herr Rabbiner Doctor,” having obtained both a doctoral degree and rabbinical education.

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7. See Ravitisky, Aviezer, “The Contemporary Lubavitch Hasidic Movement: Between Conservatism and Messianism,” in Accounting for Fundamentalism, ed. Marty, Martin E. and Appleby, R. Scott (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 303-24Google Scholar.

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12. I am thankful to the Modzitzer rebbe's granddaughter, Professor Kaja Finkler, for enlightening me as to the influence of the Modzitzer Hasidic musical tradition on Carlebach.

13. See announcements of Carlebach concerts in various locations, including Hillel houses and Reform institutions, in the Shlomo Carlebach nearprint file, Jacob Radar Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.

14. Robert Shelton, “Rabbi Carlebach Sings Spirituals,” New York Times, October 24, 1961. See also “Israel Cats Dig Manhattan Rabbi Who Croons Bible with a Guitar,” Herald and Sun, July 3, 1959.

15. Ibid.

16. Dan Shacham, “Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach: The ‘Enfant Terrible' of Orthodox Judaism in America,” Israel Shelanu, March 8, 1985, 29.

17. Cf. Wiesel, Elie, Memoirs: All Rivers Run to the Sea (New York: Schocken Books, 1995), 402-3Google Scholar; and Zalman Schachter, “Dirge on Auschwitz,” Turtle, Spring 1972, 28.

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20. Rabbi Zalman Schachter, interview with author. See also Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter, “The Conscious Ascent of the Soul,” Zalman Schachter file, Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives; and Harry Fox, “Der Vinnipeger,” McGill Review, January 13, 1967.

21. In the late 1990s, after Carlebach's death, a number of women whom Carlebach kissed and hugged made the claim that such acts were inappropriate and bordered on harassment. See Blustein, Sarah, “Sholomo Carlebach's Shadow Side,” Lilith 23, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 10–17 Google Scholar. I am also indebted to Marcia Spiegel for forwarding to me correspondence on this theme.

22. On the more systemic and uniform outreach program in Lubavitch, see Laufer, Mordechai M., ed., Sefer HaShilhut [in Hebrew] (Kfar Habad: Chabad Center, 1987)Google Scholar; Laufer, Mordecai M., ed., Sefer HaShlihut [in Hebrew] (New York: Chabad Center, 1991)Google Scholar; and Laufer, Mordecai M., ed., Kuntras HaShlihit [in Hebrew] (New York: Chabad Center, 1994)Google Scholar. These books contain the Lubavitch leader Rabbi Menhem M. Schneerson's addresses and instructions on outreach and emissaries.

23. Carlebach's brother, Eli Haim, and his sister-in-law, Hadassah, remained Hasids in good standing, which helped Shlomo Carlebach keep his relation to his old group alive. On his split with Lubavitch, see “Practical Wis-dom from Shlomo Carlebach,” Tikkun, September/October 1997, 53-56.

24. Zalman Schachter, interview with the author, Philadelphia, November 1995.

25. Martin and Marva Cooper, interview with the author, Meor Modiin, November 18,1998. Names changed.

26. See Glazer, Nathan, Ethnic Dilemmas, 1964-1982 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983)Google Scholar.

27. See Gitlin, Todd, The Sixties: Days of Hope, Days of Rage (New York: Bantam Books, 1987)Google Scholar.

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29. Leary, Flashbacks, 16.

30. See Scholem, Gershom G., Elements of the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1977), 104-12Google Scholar. For the Hasidic side, see Idel, Moshe, Hasidism between Ecstasy and Magic (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995)Google Scholar.

31. Gorenberg, Gershom, The End of Days (New York: Free Press, 2000), 4–5 Google Scholar.

32. Ellwood, Robert S., The Sixties Spiritual Awakening: American Religion Moving from Modern to Postmodern (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1994)Google Scholar.

33. Stevens, Storming Heaven, xii.

34. The names have been changed.

35. Matthew Maibaum, “Some Jewish Origins of the ‘Jesus Movement’ in San Francisco, 1967-1971: Parallels to History,” September 1974, 7. Copy in the Jacob Radar Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.

36. The mailing list of the House, which consisted of the names of persons who had already visited the place, reached 2,500 in the spring of 1968.

37. Mira Shot, interview with author, Jerusalem. Name changed.

38. See photographs of the group. I am indebted to Marvin Kusoy for allowing me to make copies of photographs in his collection.

39. Abehsera, Michel, Zen Macrobiotic Cooking: The Ancient Art of Selecting and Preparing Food for Longevity and Rejuvenation (New York: Avon Books, 1968)Google Scholar.

40. Ilana Fried, interview with author, Jerusalem, January 1994. Name changed.

41. Maibaum, “Some Jewish Origins,” 13.

42. Talita Hesed, “How I Got to the HLP,” e-mail message to author, February 26, 1997. Name changed.

43. “The Free Form Wedding Game,” Life, September 26, 1969.

44. See the discussion on the e-mail Shlomo list in 1995.

45. Zalman Schachter, interview with author, Philadelphia, November 1995.

46. See Rambo, Lewis R., Understanding Religious Conversion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 66–123 Google Scholar.

47. See Shlomo Carlebach with Mesinai, Susan Yael, Shlomo Stories: Selected Tales (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1994)Google Scholar; and Serkez, Kalman, ed., The Holy Beggar Banquet: Traditional Jewish Tales and Teachings of the Laie, Great Reb Shlomo Carlebach and Others in the Spirit of the 1960s, the 1970s, and the New Age (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1998)Google Scholar.

48. See Dan, Joseph, The Hasidic Story: Its History and Development (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1975)Google Scholar.

49. See, for example, stories such as “Yankele the Thief” and “The Baal Shem Tov Mistreats a Jew” in Carlebach and Mesinai, Shlomo's Stories, and “Stories about Reb Meir of Premshlan” and “The Wheel of Fortune” in The Holy Beggar's Banquet. See also Schachter-Shalomi, Zalman, “Challahs in the Ark,” in The Jewish Year: Celebrations of the Holidays, ed. Rush, Barbara (New York: Stewart Tabori and Chang, 2000)Google Scholar.

50. On Rabbi Nahman of Braslav, see Green, Arthur, Tormented Master: A Life of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (University: University of Alabama Press, 1979)Google Scholar.

51. Shacham, “Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach,” 29.

52. From the 1970s to the 1990s, when deep social and political divides between the “Right” and “Left” existed in Israel, Carlebach quoted Rabbi Nahman as saying that “clapping hands was a righteous deed because it brought the Right and the Left together.” Shlomo Carlebach Live in Concert in Festival Arad, 1992, an audiocassette.

53. I am thankful to Talita Hesed for sharing with me Schachter's prescription for dealing with anger.

54. Dov Hope, interview with author, Chicago, February 1998. Name changed.

55. Don Rov, interview with author, New Jersey, May 1998. Name changed.

56. Jacob Fine, telephone interview with author, New York, June 1999. Name changed.

57. Shlomo Carlebach in an interview with Dan Shacham, “Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach: The Enfant Terrible of Orthodox Jewry in America,” Israel Shelanu, August 3, 1985, 29.

58. Gitlin, The Sixties; Stevens, Storming Heaven.

59. Talita Hesed, letter to author.

60. Members of the HLP looked upon Sufi Sam as a source of inspiration and related to him as “Reb Sam.” See, for example, letter of Avraham Sand to the mailing list for Reb Shlomo Carlebach Foundation, August 19,2001.

61. Danziger, Herbert M., Returning to Tradition: The Contemporary Revival of Orthodox Judaism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 224-30Google Scholar.

62. Minutes of the House of Love and Prayer Meeting, February 9, 1975, clause 9. I am thankful to Alifa Saadya for providing me with copies of the minutes of the House meetings.

63. Talita Hesed, “Some Things You Never Get Used To” (unpublished manuscript), 2.

64. Eli and Elisheva Etrog, interview with author, Jerusalem, November 1998; Talita Hesed, interview with author, Meor Modiim, November 1998; and Meira Albanese, interview with author, Meor Modiim, November 1998. Names changed.

65. Gerald Engel, “The Singing Rabbi,” Congress Bi-Weekly, July 25, 1960, 9-11.

66. See Cox, Harvey, “Deep Structure in the Study of New Religions,” in linder standing the New Religions, ed. Needleman, Jacob and Baker, George (New York: Crossroads, 1978), 122-30Google Scholar.

67. Eileen R. Pollack, “Carlebach Instructs and Inspires with His Songs,” Baltimore Jewish Times, November 1, 1974, 27.

68. Ibid.

69. The New Consciousness Sourcebook: Spiritual Community Guide (Pomona, Calif.: Arcline Publications, 1971-72), 75.

70. Veterans of the HLP speak about the “first HLP” and the “second HLP,” but they see the two houses as the same house that moved from one location to another.

71. According to some sources, the divider was installed mostly during the Amidah, a silent prayer that serves as a central part of synagogue services.

72. Aryae Coopersmith, letter to Libby Bottero and the Reb Shlomo e-mail list, November 11,1998.

73. Schachter spent a year at Brandeis University in 1968-69 and became instrumental in the founding of Havurat Shalom, the first Havurah, a fellowship for prayer and study which came to offer an alternative to the more formal synagogues. See Prell, Riv-Ellen, Prayer and Community: The Havura in American Judaism (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989)Google Scholar.

74. Audiocassette of the conference. I am indebted to Alifa Saadya for providing me with an audiocassette copy of the debate.

75. This declaration was the theme of one of Carlebach's more popular songs in Israel in the wake of the Six-Day War.

76. See Danzinger, Returning to Tradition; Davidman, Lynn, Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox Judaism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991)Google Scholar; and Kaufman, Debra R., Rachels Daughters: Newly Orthodox Jewish Women (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1991)Google Scholar.

77. Eli and Elisheva Etrog, interview with author, Jerusalem, November 1998.

78. Wertheimer, Jack, A People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America (Hanover, N.H.: Brandeis University Press, 1997), 160-69Google Scholar.

79. Roger Kamenetz, “Has the Jewish Renewal Made It into the Mainstream?” Moment, December 1994, 42-49, 79-80.

80. The interest in Jewish mysticism, for example, grew during the 1980s and 1990s and included non-Jews who had chosen to study Kabbala. This is manifested in, among other things, the books on Jewish mysticism published by the Catholic Paulist Press or the new age Shambhala Publications.

81. On messianic Judaism, see Ariel, Yaakov, Evangelizing the Chosen People: Missions to the Jews in America, 1880-2000 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 220-51Google Scholar.