rabbiofberlin: While you have a right to your opinions about Shlomo Carlbach, his “kiruv” methods would have put him in prison in today’s environment.
And what has Shlomo Carlbach done for the klal? And today there are many talented composers of nigunim which are sung throughout the Jewish world (just attend a kabbalas shaboos at the kossel). You don’t have to be off the normative path to be successful, and you don’t have to be rejected by all your Rosh Yeshivas and Rebbes to be popular.
But the legend of Shlomo Carlbach continues to grow and has a life of its own. It’s amazing that those who have nothing to gain by the legend and were closest to him are not part of the frenzy, because they knew what he was and what he wasn’t.