NY Rabbis Ban ‘Biggest Haredi Concert Ever’ As ‘Immoral’.

By MICHAL LANDO

NEW YORK – It was going to be the biggest night of Lipa Shmeltzer’s musical career.

The venue was reserved months in advance, thousands of tickets were sold, and hundreds of thousands of dollars had been spent organizing what some say would have been the largest haredi music performance yet.

The "Big Event," scheduled to take place on March 9, was to feature the popular haredi performer at Madison Square Garden singing hits from albums such as Gam Zu Letovah (This, too, is for the best) or the more recent Lipa Baderech (Lipa on the way).

Shmeltzer’s albums have gained tremendous popularity within the American hassidic community due in part to his innovations in fusing traditional hassidic music with contemporary music styles. But for that very reason, his music has also been criticized and rejected by more conservative elements in the community. Some say he relies too much on the outside world for inspiration, others suggest his music pokes fun at haredi life. Above all, haredim are fundamentally suspicious of entertainment for its own sake, because to be a true haredi means that every moment must be spent in devotion to God.

To ensure that the Big Event would be as "kosher" as possible, rabbis were consulted and preparations were made. Attendees were guaranteed exclusively separate seating for men and women and an intermission was nixed to avoid unwanted mingling between the sexes.

But despite these precautions, last week, just two weeks before the event, two community leaders, Asher Friedman and Avraham Shor, circulated a petition to rabbis of various communities prohibiting the concert for reasons such as "lightheartedness" and "immorality." In the end, 33 rabbis signed a public announcement, published February 20 in the religious daily Hamodia, prohibiting the concert.

The Web blogs and radio talk shows were hotbeds of discussion, as people weighed in on whether Shmeltzer and producer Sheya Mendlowitz should cancel the show. The community was split. Some urged Shmeltzer to continue despite the ban, others said he shouldn’t but questioned the timing of the rabbis’ announcement and the way the prohibition was handled.

Vos Iz Neias? (What’s New?), a popular religious blog that sends out news updates several times a day, held a readers’ poll this week on whether Shmeltzer should pull out.

"In today’s GOYISHE world it’s better to have a concert like the BIG EVENT rather then a real GOYISHE concert RM"L. Don’t you think so?," one person wrote on Vos Iz Neias.

Another wrote: "If people would taste even just once true spiritual pleasure they would not even entertain the thought of going to such a concert. In today’s world every one is pursuing PLEASURE, but the true rich pleasures of life are in a daf gemara [page of Talmud]."

Late Saturday night, Shmeltzer signed a pledge that he would not perform, and soon thereafter the concert was officially canceled. But the decision was not easy. Three thousand tickets had been sold and the show was expected to sell out at the over 5,000 seat auditorium.

"I was supposed to make more money from this than from any show I ever made in my life," Shmeltzer told Hamodia. But "When 33 rabbanim from different kehillos [communities] sign something, it means that Hashem is telling me, ‘Lipa, stop this concert; I don’t want this concert.’"

On a voicemail message on his cellphone, Shmeltzer stresses that "everything is bashert [meant to be]."

All the blogs praised Shmeltzer’s decision, and some went so far as to call him a hero.

But the brouhaha continues. Many are wondering why the prohibition came at such short notice, and who is to be held responsible for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.

Some suggest that the rabbis were dragged into signing the ban by Friedman and Shor, who petitioned them to sign the document without ever contacting the singer or the producers of the show to express their concerns.

"In the end it narrowed down to two people who went and obtained signatures in a very slimy and shady way, two very dangerous people," said Mendlowitz, the producer of the show, who has been involved in the haredi music scene for almost 30 years.

"If he [Friedman] had a problem with it, he knew about it more than two months ago. He should have called us to discuss it like a mensch, not caused so much chaos and loss of funds."

Mendlowitz says he is owed roughly $700,000. Initially, Friedman offered to pay part of that sum, but under the condition that Mendlowitz sign an agreement to stop producing concerts.

"Who’s he to tell me not to do concerts? This is absolutely ridiculous," said Mendlowitz. "They want to shut down the Jewish concert business, because they don’t feel it’s the proper place for their followers."

Though listening to live concerts with instrumentation for pleasure’s sake is technically prohibited in the last section of Hilchot Tisha Be’av, it has never been strictly abided by and live performances happen on a weekly basis.

Some say it is Shmeltzer’s popularity and the success of the Big Event that eventually sparked the harsh response. Popular singers are relatively new to the haredi world, and Shmeltzer has become a star in ways never before seen. The kind of popularity he has earned has typically been reserved for rabbis and some think that’s where it should remain.

Shmeltzer is also regarded with skepticism for the fans he attracts. Though he appeals to a diverse audience, many are men and women who grew up haredi but have chosen to stray slightly from the hard-line approach. They may wear their beards a little shorter or keep their side curls hidden.

Also at issue is the music itself, which sometimes borrows from non-Jewish sources. But following the ban, Shmeltzer agreed to stop singing songs that borrow from non-Jewish sources.

Originally published by MICHAL LANDO, Jerusalem Post correspondent.

(c) 2008 The Jerusalem Post. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.