Backstage Pass

he morning after the annual Camp HASC “A Time for Music” concert always makes me feel nostalgic, and as another one passes us by, I can’t help thinking about some of the memorable moments over the last 33 years of concerts. There was the thunderous applause Shlomo Carlebach got when he surprised the audience at HASC 2 in 1988 (and Abie Rotenberg’s moving tribute to him in 1995, a few months after his passing), Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s warm reception shortly after 9/11, MBD’s hilarious impression of Yigal Calek, Dedi dressed as Pavarotti in a tuxedo, Avraham Fried and Chazzan Helfgot in a duet of “Tanya,” Ohad’s debut of “Birkat Habanim” together with Yonatan Shainfeld… and the list goes on and on.

I asked Sheya Mendlowitz, who created the HASC concert model together with me, what he remembers most fondly of the early years. He said it was the afternoon of the first concert when the band began to rehearse the HASC theme song, written by Yisroel Lamm. The music started and his heart lifted and although it hadn’t yet begun, he just knew that this was going to be the beginning of something huge. For me, it was the moment, toward the end of the concert, when Avraham Fried was singing “Forever One” while MBD wheeled a HASC child onto the stage, to a full standing ovation.

After the second HASC concert, Shlomo Carlebach, Sheya, Nachum Segal, and I were backstage schmoozing, when somebody walked by and commented, “Shlomo, why do all your songs sound so alike?”

Shlomo didn’t bother answering him, but instead turned to us and said, “Holy chevreh, everyone steals my songs — can’t I steal them also?”