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It was going to be the biggest night of Lipa Shmeltzer's musical career.

The venue was reserved months in advance, thousands of tickets were sold, and hundreds of thousands of dollars had been funneled into organizing what would have been the largest haredi music performance yet.

The "Big Event," scheduled to take place on March 9 was to feature the popular haredi performer live at Madison Square Gardens singing hits from albums such as "Gam Zu Letovah" (This, too, is for the best) or the more recent "Lipa Baderech" (Lipa on the way).

Shmeltzer's albums have gained tremendous popularity within the American Hasidic community due in part to his innovations in fusing traditional Hasidic music with contemporary music styles. But for that very reason his
music has also been criticized and rejected by more conservative elements in the community. Some say he relies too much on the outside world for inspiration, others suggest his music pokes fun at haredi life. But above all haredim are fundamentally suspicious of entertainment for its own sake, because it goes against the very essence of what it means to be haredi.

Rabbis were consulted, and preparations were made to ensure the event was "kosher." Attendees were guaranteed exclusively separate seating for men and women. And the intermission was nixed to avoid unwanted mingling between the sexes.

But despite these precautions, just weeks before the event, two community leaders who oppose this kind of entertainment, Asher Friedman and Avraham
Shor began circulating a petition to ban the event for "lightheartedness" and "immorality." In the end 33 rabbis stunned the public with an announcement, published Feb. 20 in the religious daily Hamodia, prohibiting the concert.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204213985359&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull