Even the roosters crow for RebbeSoul

February 23, 2011 - 10:17 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: History and Culture, Music 

Why would a successful Hollywood musician and Jewish music pioneer leave behind a lucrative career and pack it all up to make aliyah? Bruce Burger, who goes by the stage name of RebbeSoul, can’t quite put his finger on it. Maybe it’s his Jewish soul, or that he fell in love with the people of Israel on one of his trips here to perform. Or perhaps he just figured his chances of finding a bride might be better in the land of the Jews.

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Whatever the reason, Israelis are the clear beneficiaries. The 52-year-old Burger, who immigrated in 2007, is a musical virtuoso, and his skills were on display this week when he played a concert at Jerusalem’s Nature Museum. The show was part of Jewish Renewal community Nava Tehila’s spiritual and Jewish music performances, which are held on Tuesday evenings.

Burger’s repertoire consists of a mix of original tunes and reinterpreted Shlomo Carlebach melodies, played on acoustic and electric guitar, as well as a balalaika he received from legendary session musician Tommy Tedesco, the artist who performed the theme music of the 1950s television hit Bonanza. Burger was accompanied this week by percussionist Eli Melech and, on a few numbers, by Itai Kagan doing a mean live beat box.

RebbeSoul was one of the first bands to make Jewish music “cool.” Over a 20-year career including six well-received albums, Burger has emphasized a world music vibe. To wit: at his concert, he led with a flamenco-inspired guitar-driven song in Ladino, and later played a jazzed up “Kaddish” that featured recorded sound clips from Jewish communities around the world (including a traditional Ashkenazi melody and a wild Indian chant). Another of his songs, “Shalom Salaam,” which has lyrics promoting peace in Hebrew, Arabic and even Japanese, was a minor hit on college radio.

Perhaps the most amusing moment of the evening was during his rendition of the Yom Kippur prayer Avinu Malkenu. As he reached the pinnacle of his Jimi Hendrix-esque electric guitar riff  (seriously, I’m not just engaging in fawning hyperbole), a rooster outside in the grounds of the Nature Museum began to crow. The timing was so perfect, for a moment, we all thought it was part of the song.

Burger lives in Zichron Yaakov and divides his time between Israel and overseas gigs in Europe and the U.S. And, oh yes, if you have a potential shidduch for a crazy talented musician with a Jewish neshama, visit his website and give him a call.

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Hassidism at Boombamela

March 30, 2009 - 4:05 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Environment, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Music, Pop Culture, Profiles, Religion 

Michael GolombA long-time disciple of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and a seasoned grassroots organizer, Michael Golomb used to spend his efforts marching against the Vietnam War. But since moving to Israel along with many of Carlebach’s Hassidim as part of that community’s mid-Seventies exodus from Haight-Ashbury, Golomb has busied himself with spreading a message of love at gatherings, encounter events and festivals – even mainstream, teenybopper-y ones like Boombamela, Shantipi and Beresheet.

Golomb and his crew have helped to organize Tents of Love and Prayer at several of these festivals, with the sub-camp serving as a festival within a festival for many party-goers. According to a statement released this week by director Guy Peleg, Boombalema’s planners love Carlebach-style Judaism because of its emphasis on happiness and love of mankind, making Golomb’s contributions key elements to the eye-opening, pan-spiritualist experience Peleg is trying to forge.

At the festivals, the Tent of Love and Prayer offers kosher food (which is even harder to come by during Passover), prayer services, meditation sessions, low-impact lectures and the like.

But it’s not always easy to keep one’s mind on lofty ideas when corporate sponsorship banners are flying high and scantily clad perky young ones are doing the same. And the mainstream festival circuit has received plenty of criticism in recent years about these trends from the hippie hardcore populace that first provided their critical mass about a decade ago. But Carlebach-style outreach was never afraid of “elevating the sparks” (as the Hassidic masters might have put it) out from the ditches. As The Chicago Tribune did put it back in 2007:

…Carlebach was one of the first emissaries of the Lubavitcher movement, a Hasidic group that pioneered outreach to disaffected Jews in the 1950s. Carlebach found himself particularly drawn to lost souls: drug addicts, runaway young people, the homeless.

Golomb carries this torch proudly, dancing while carrying a Torah scroll into the throngs of drum circle, sunset-hailing revelers at the opening evening of each festival. And it’s nice to see Boombalema’s leadership, which essentially represents the ultimate in the crossroads between mainstream pop culture and new-age (which usually means post-Jewish) spiritualism, appreciating his efforts.

This year’s three-day Boombamela Festival on Nitzanim Beach is set to kick off on April 9, with plans for this year including utilization of solar energy to cut down on electricity waste by half.

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