CARLEBACH, SHLOMO.

Shlomo Carlebach (1925-1994) was an immensely influential composer, singer and unique teacher. Although his roots lay among traditional Orthodox yeshivot, Carlebach branched out to create his own personal movement combining Hasidic-style warmth and personal interaction, public concerts, and song-filled synagogue services. Carlebach's ancestors comprised one of the oldest rabbinical dynasties in pre-Holocaust Germany. He was born in 1925 in Berlin, where his father, Rabbi Hartwig Naftali Carlebach (1889-1967), was an Orthodox rabbi. The family fled the Nazis in 1931 and lived in Baden bei Wien, Austria and by 1933 in Switzerland, before coming to New York City. In 1938 his father became the rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jacob, a small synagogue on West 79th Street in New York's Upper West Side. Carlebach came to New York in 1939 via Great Britain. He and his twin brother Eli Chaim took over the rabbinate of the synagogue after their father's death in 1967. (Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shlomo_Carlebach_%28musician%29). Arthur Cohn (b. 1927) was Carlebach’s first cousin. Shlomo's mother, Paula Cohn Carlebach, and Arthur's father, Dr. Marcus Cohn, were siblings, children of Rabbi Dr. Asher (Arthur) Cohn, Chief Rabbi of Basel, Switzerland. Today, Arthur Cohn is an internationally acclaimed film producer and winner of six Academy Awards