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Film Version of ‘Soul Doctor,’ the Shlomo Carlebach-Nina Simone Musical, Hit
US Theaters for One Night
A filmed version of “Soul Doctor,” the 2013
Broadway musical about the life of the influential
and controversial Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, played
in 600 movie theaters nationwide for one night only
on June 13.

The performance was filmed at the Israel Festival
in Jerusalem in 2018 as part of celebrations marking
the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding.

“Soul Doctor,” written by Daniel Wise, earned
mixed reviews during a short Broadway run. The
show follows Carlebach from his childhood in Austria
in the 1930s to New York, where he becomes one of
the most well-known Jewish spiritual figures of the
20th century, working to fuse the modern musical
sensibilities of the 1960s with religious liturgy. It also
chronicles his friendship with Nina Simone, the iconic
singer and civil rights activist, whom he meets at a
downtown jazz club. Given his family’s experience of
antisemitism, Carlebach empathizes with Simone’s
struggles against racism.

Simone’s daughter, Lisa, who produced a Grammy-
nominated Netflix documentary about her mother,
is an executive producer on the “Soul Doctor”
film. Jeremy Chess, the original Broadway show’s
producer, along with Jerome Levy and Chandra
McQueen, are also producers of the film.

The show does not reckon with the allegations of
sexual misconduct first raised against Carlebach in
1998, which include abusing his power as a spiritual
leader with, among other things, unwanted touching
and kissing of several women. The allegations were
scrutinized again by Jewish communities across the
country in the wake of the #MeToo movement in
2017. Several rabbis and congregations have moved
away from using Carlebach’s music in their houses
of worship in recent years. His daughter, Neshama,
herself a musician, has struggled with how to uphold
her father’s musical and spiritual legacy.

Both Naomi King, the civil rights activist and
sister-in-law of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Susannah
Heschel, the Dartmouth Jewish studies professor and
daughter of civil rights-era activist Rabbi Abraham
Joshua Heschel, watched the “Soul Doctor” film and
commented on it in a recent press release.

“Any person watching this movie, it’ll shake ’em,
move ’em and change ‘em to help make this a better
world,” King said.

Heschel said the film “is a tribute to Nina Simone’s
enormous influence. By inspiring and encouraging
Shlomo Carlebach, Nina contributed to the
extraordinary revival of Jewish music and spirit
immortalized by Shlomo.”
— Gabe Friedman | JTA
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‘It’s an Obligation’: Efforts Ongoing to
Institutionalize Dignified Burial, Cemetery
Restoration FHBS or the Fischer Memorial Burial Park.

“It’s an obligation that when needed or
when called upon, we do what we can to
help those who we need to help,” Levine
simple, traditional Jewish funeral
said. costs about $7,500-8,500, accord-
About 5% of the funerals Levine provides
ing to Joseph Levine & Sons Funeral
are free or subsidized, about one or two a
Home partner Brian Levine. That’s with a
month. plain, wooden casket and no limousines,
At the same time, Sklaroff began organiz-
flowers or death notice advertisements.

ing meetings with leaders from Jewish
The burial and funeral process, a neces-
Federation, JFCS and Jewish funeral
sary part of the Jewish life cycle, is costly
homes, including Levine, on how to make
and, for the past 50 years in Philadelphia,
the free and subsidized burial process
the Jewish community has tried to lighten
more streamlined across the community.

the burden for families who cannot afford it.

Using the database, cemetery and
Today, the Dignified Burial Fund, run by
funeral home owners, such as Levine,
the Female Hebrew Benevolent Society, is
would have a standardized process
the foremost effort for the cause. The volun-
Jewish community leaders are interested in a nonprofit that would
to assist families in need. JFCS would
teer-led organization uses its emergency
oversee both dignified burial and cemetery restoration, as well as
maintenance efforts.

conduct a needs assessment for families,
aid to assist in the burial of Jewish women
and FHBS would identify costs and a
and uses additional funding from the Jewish
Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia’s Jewish Federation, has also expressed interest in a burial plot.

Addie Lewis Klein, former senior director of
critical needs fund to help friends to provide families nonprofit that would support the cause.

community development at Jewish Federation, gave
The Jewish
Federation, which
previously operated
in need with a modest Jewish funeral and burial. They
use cemetery plots in Har Yehuda Cemetery, Har DBF and has organized community cemetery clean- $10,000 in seed money to the cause, which then
Nebo Cemetery, Montefiore Cemetery and six other ups, is looking into nonprofit models to steward became DBF.

“When there are living people with unmet needs, it is
area Jewish cemeteries, donated by families who do these efforts. In iterations around the country, Jewish
sometimes hard to prioritize providing a dignified burial
Federations have
incubated these
nonprofits, which
not need them. DBF also uses grant money from the
and caring for our cemeteries,” Klein said. “But I really
then became independent entities.

Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

As of this month, the Jewish Federation of Greater think they are key parts of our legacy as a community
Since September, DBF has reviewed 26 cases and
assisted in 22. In its first year in 2018, it reviewed 17 Philadelphia did not offer an update on the status of the and that we do have the responsibility to treat them as
places of honor.”
nonprofit creation.

cases and assisted in 11.

When Klein left the Jewish Federation in 2022 to
Sklaroff argues that a nonprofit would make the
Though in demand, DBF has changed hands
multiple times since its creation. Many of the Jewish vetting and fund distribution process for DBF efficient become the executive director of the Macks Center for
Jewish Connections in Baltimore, DBF changed once
leaders involved in the project, as well as in cemetery and consistent.

She first came up with the idea for DBF in 2016, when more.

maintenance and cleanup, have additional jobs and
The Jewish Federation handed over DBF, and
responsibilities. To ensure DBF and cemetery resto- the Jewish Federation and FHBS worked together to
ration efforts continue and have consistent financial update a database of donated graves across various $20,000 in grant money, to JFCS to handle the project.

support, the project should be institutionalized, argued Jewish cemeteries. Working with Linda Roth from the Five months later, FHBS took over DBF, but JFCS still
Eileen Sklaroff, president emerita of FHBS and DBF Jewish Federation, Sklaroff cataloged the database, partners with FHBS and conducts the needs assess-
co-founder. She has worked to create a nonprofit that previously held by JFCS, which documented how ment for each case.

Though DBF continues to have a demand and
and where cemetery plots were used. The Jewish
would oversee these efforts.

operate successfully, there are still limited resources
“If we had this overarching nonprofit, then it would Federation held the updated database.

Families of deceased relatives who no longer need — both in people and monetarily — that prevents the
incorporate all functions that were related to death
and dying. Burials and funerals would be under the space in a cemetery plot cannot sell back the land project from having a greater impact, Sklaroff said,
auspices of this nonprofit entity,” Sklaroff said. “That to cemeteries, but they can donate it, according to underlying the urgency of a nonprofit.

Levine. These plots are used for free or to subsidize
would make sense to me.”
“I can’t see any organization in the community that will
Though Sklaroff is leading these efforts in the hopes burials for poor families. Before DBF, Levine & Sons, take this on,” she said. “It’s a huge amount of work.” ■
of institutionalizing DBF, she’s not the only one inter- as well as other Jewish funeral homes, provided
ested. Friends of Jewish Cemeteries, a project of the these services themselves, using money from JFCS, srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
Courtesy of Rich Blumberg
A JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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