"I don't know what happened to that song there, you guys, but it was great."
Emil Leuchter
true rock'n'roll hero
1950-1994
EMIL LEUCHTER REQUIEM FOR A BLUES MAN
by Steven Rodan
In Jerusalem (Jerusalem Post weekend magazine), 20 May 1994
Emil Leuchter, a pioneer of Jerusalem's rock scene, has died after a long bout with cancer. He was 43. For nearly 20 years, Leuchter was a mainstay of rock music in the capital. Tall, bearded and clad in a large kippa and granny glasses, he started out as a street performer on Ben Yehuda Street and moved from bar to bar in the city, also playing in several Jerusalem theaters. "He was one of the first on the block," said Mark Feffer, a friend who managed some of the bands Leuchter played in. "In the early days, this was the only rock'n'roll south of Beirut."
Leuchter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1950, and by high school he was pounding out rock'n'roll. He was influenced by schoolmate Screamin' Scott Simon, later of Sha Na Na. Leuchter first visited Israel in 1969 when he served as a kibbutz volunteer. He returned several years later.
In several interviews to Jerusalem newspapers in later years, Leuchter recalled his attempt to mix the power of rock with the soul and spirit of Jewish music and learning. He often would throw in Jewish or Klezmer tunes in his repertoire of 1960s songs, and would accompany leading Jewish soul artists such as Shlomo Carlebach.
In 1981, Leuchter organized the Jerusalem Blues Breakers. "Everyone gravitated to JBR [the now-defunct Jazz Blues & Rock club, which once stood at the corner of Agrippas and Mesilat Yesharim Sts.] in those days," recalls band member Don Slovin. "Emil had a way of attracting musicians as well as those simply interested in Judaism. Today, they call them ba'al tshuvas [returnees to Judaism]. Then, we just thought of Emil and the others as cool Jews." The JBR club was a wild scene from the beginning, resembling more of a Midwestern roadhouse bar than an Israeli cafe. Foreigners took turns jamming with the band.
During the Lebanon war, Leuchter took time out from his job as musical therapist to the blind and handicapped to organize bands to perform for troops along the northern border. "My main purpose was to make people happy and to give them hope," Leuchter would often say.
In November 1990, Leuchter, playing bass, keyboards and occasional guitar, was a founding member of the oldies group, the Alte Rockers. "He was very enthusiastic to get back into rock'n'roll," said band member Murray Platt. "We started out rehearsing in his living room and waited for his wife to kick us out." Last summer, Leuchter returned to performing on Jerusalem's streets, this time as part of the city's Summer Festival. The repertoire was a free romp through 1960s rock and 19th century Klezmer.
He continued to play as often as he could despite cancer. His last performance was two weeks before he died. On May 11, the night before he died, leading Jerusalem musicians arrived at his bedside in Hadassah's Ein Kerem Hospital and serenaded him with guitars and harmonicas. "He couldn't talk by then," recalled Harpo Dave, one of the musicians. "It was too painful. But he howled a couple of times along with us".
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Emil Leuchter lived in Moshav Elazar in the Etzion Bloc with his wife Edna and seven children. There, his neighbors knew him from a different perspective.
"We were privileged to know Emil, the family man, who from time to time would build a bonfire for his kids and sit around the fire and play guitar for them. We were privileged to know Emil, the bike repairer for all the kids in the neighborhood. We were privileged to know Emil, who was not embarrassed to get up at a gathering and in his halting Hebrew stress his points of view. Emil was a proud, observant Jew who loved to learn Torah and was a living example of charity. Emil was always there to lend a hand, be it with lending sound equipment for the Bnei Akiva kids, or to take a friend to Kupat Holim when he himself was ill. Indeed, it was a privilege to know Emil, the tzaddik [righteous one], who deserves to be portrayed as more than a rock fanatic. We will surely miss him"
(Ettie Litke, In Jerusalem, 27 May 1994)
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Emil was my musical mentor and big brother figure. He was the guy who showed me how bands work, what you need to play and be in a band. Not only was he in my first band, Reality Shock, but he was my first band the equipment, the knowledge, and a lot of the inspiration were his. When people ask me about my musical background, I tell them that I learned what I know by playing with other musicians; Emil was the first and most significant of those musicians from whom I learned.
I was always welcome at his house whether rehearsing, jamming, just hanging out; whether his wife and kids were awake or asleep. He always had a place for me at his Shabbat table, even when he was barely managing to feed his family. The yeshiva high school dorm I lived in at the time was two doors down from Emil's house; many a Friday morning, when we had no classes, I'd hear the sound of Emil's electric guitar echoing through the neighborhood as I walked out of the dorm. On days like that I'd inevitably gravitate toward the sound of that guitar, and he'd be sitting out in his yard with his amp set up, just playing in the sunshine. He'd fire up his Rhodes piano and I'd sit down and jam with him. Often, other musicians from the area would wind up there, and there were times when we'd have a full band lineup of jamming musicians there. Other times when I'd just be bummed out, sitting in the dorm with nothing to do, I'd go knock on Emil's door, even as late as 10 at night, and he'd always welcome me. If he was busy, he'd set me up in his living room with headphones and his record collection he turned me on to some great music (Roy Buchanan) and failed at turning me on to other music (the Grateful Dead) that way.
He was a product of the psychedelic Sixties, seeking to combine spirituality and rock'n'roll music. Other people of his generation went off to seek their spiritual inspiration in places like India, but Emil's roots led him back to Israel. He was the first person I encountered to whom rock'n'roll music was not antithetical to Judaism, which ran counter to the message I was constantly getting at home and in yeshiva. The fact that Emil could play straightforward rock'n'roll and still be a religious Jew drowned out all the noise the rabbis made to the contrary, and served as a tremendous inspiration to me.
Emil had the patience of Hillel, and was always willing to encourage kids to be musical. He made a living as a music therapist at a school for blind children (situated in the building between his house and the yeshiva dorm). The very fact that he, a veteran of the Greenwich Village rock scene of the late 60s, would be willing to show two high school punks 20 years younger than he like myself and my friend and drummer Isser how to play the blues, set him apart from so many other "pros" who couldn't be bothered. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I catch myself being like that sometimes, losing my patience with musicians not as advanced as I. I tell myself that had Emil been to me the way I was being to these kids, I'd be nothing right now. Emil is a great role model to emulate in that respect, and I wish I could be more like him.
One memory that will stand out in my mind forever is that of one rehearsal that took place in Isser's cramped basement, where the five band members of Reality Shock holed up for several hours every Wednesday night in the winter of 1983, trying to get the right sound. We had been floundering for several months, but one night we jammed on one of Emil's riffs and for the first time, it all came together, like all of heaven and earth in harmony. When after the last cymbal crash faded away, we all looked at each other in a stunned silence, and then everybody began shouting their comments at once. Emil just said one thing, which summed up what had just happened: "I don't know what happened to that song there, you guys, but it was great." (I still have the tape.) Yes it was great, and I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything else in the world.
Emil, every note of music I play is dedicated to you because all of my serious musical endeavors and high standards can be traced directly back to you. You are missed.
~Heshy
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Here's a few words about Emil:
We used to jam a lot, and we did some once-in-a-lifetime gigs together, like Rocky's wedding, when the bride and groom rode in on a horse, she was 9 months pregnant, and they rode straight into the pool, with Feffer, the photographer, going right in after them, and we kept on jammin ... we kept the light shining, we discovered Yonaton Miller, and Reuven David Miller, Libby, and Hurricane all played with us. Emil loved a good hardcore Neil Young, Hendrix, or Blues jam. Who is a good friend? Someone who accepts you for who you are, 24 hours a day all the time, is always there with a kind word, some home cooking, a place to rest, and whatever you may need to feel better. Emil was just that friend to me. Nobody accepted me as is. But he was just that way, I think, with everybody. I don't know what Edna does without him. When he died, I was so hurt and in head-turning disbelief. He really loved Heshy & Isser, and our whole gang of offbeat wandering Jewish blues folks. He was a true Chassid. He helped the blind, the ill, the hung-up, the lost. His greatest moments were playing Torah rock festivals with people like Artimus Pyle, David Lewis, Shlomo Carlebach, and that mystical French guy in Rechavia who gave us all lots of money to turn on and blast overdrive. "Elu devarim" is, I think, his favorite. We laughed a lot together. I can't believe he's gone. He's in Hillbilly Rock Heaven. There's nobody like him.
~Ruby Harris
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Emil was loved and admired by many as a person, a neighbor, a musician, and a role model. This page is intended as a cyberspace tribute to the man so that his memory will live on. If you or anyone you know have any personal recollections, photos, articles, or even musical recordings which feature Emil and/or his work, please email us so that he may add them to this site. Thank you.