Hundreds filled the Boulder Theater last Sunday for an event that while designed to honor a living man entering his 90th year, ultimately proved to be a moving tribute to the recently departed Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi z”l.  The gathering was planned as part of a Shabbaton celebration of Reb Zalman’s 90th birthday (August 17th) organized principally by Aleph: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, the Yesod Foundation, CU’s Program in Jewish Studies and Post-Holocaust American Judaism Archives, and Naropa University.

Billed as “An Ecumenical Ceremony and Celebration,” the program included spoken, musical and spiritual tributes to Reb Zalman from just a few of the many faith traditions that Reb Zalman embraced and combined during his remarkable career: Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Sufi.  Rabbis, a priest, a chazzan, a dervish. The President of Naropa University and the Director of the Program in Jewish Studies at CU, two recordings of Reb Zalman himself, and a heartfelt song performed by Rebbitzen Eve Ilsen.

The two recordings of Reb Zalman were an incredible duet of flute and shofar, performed with Paul Horn at the Transpersonal Psychology Conference in Mumbai, India in 1982, and a video of Reb Zalman’s address, “The Emerging Cosmology” at the Roundtable Dialogue with Nobel Laureates in Vancouver, Canada in 2004.

A live stream recording of the event is available on the Aleph web site.

Our photo gallery of the event: