click above to watch the interviewclick above to listen (audio only)
Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with comedian PABLO LEWIN
Topics include: stand-up comedy, aviation, ham radio, Israel.
Segment airs June 28, 2025 as part of the 987th episode of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio/video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.
Please Note: Segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast.
All content (c)2025 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #195 (6/28/2025): ZOHRAN MAMDANI
This Rabbinical Reflection first aired June 28, 2025 on the Dave’s Gone By video podcast.
Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections are heard on the long-running Dave’s Gone By radio/video podcast program (davesgoneby.com) and then archived as text and audio on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com, where a transcript of this Reflection may be read.
Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage show, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon,” which played in NYC in Nov. 2011 and Aug. 2012.
RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #195 (6/25/2025): Zohran Mamdani
airs June 28, 2025 on Dave’s Gone By. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_8PqbgcvwE
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for late June 2025.
Well, congratulations, progressive Democrats. Your efforts to transform once-magnificent New York City into a terrifying shithole are going splendidly. On June 24th, Primary Day in NYC, voters rejected Andrew Cuomo—whose only sin was hubris and killing a bunch of old people during COVID (ask yourself: were they missed?). Instead, these lefty losers pulled the trigger – er, lever – for Zohran Mamdani.
Who is Zohran Mamdani? Or, more precisely, who the fuck is Zohran Mamdani? He’s the son of a Columbia Professor of Colonialism (that should tell you something right there) and of a filmmaker mom who’s spent a decade boycotting Israel. Little Zohran got his start stumping for a Palestinian pastor and joining the anti-Zionist Democratic Socialists of America. Bolstered by these unassailable credentials, in 2020 Mamdani was elected Assemblyman for Astoria and Long Island City, Queens.
Like so many liberal Democrats, Mamdani has ideas that sound good on paper: raising minimum wage, free busing, government-run free grocery stores for the poor (can you say, Russia 1970s?), prison reform. But like so many socialists, he has no idea where to get the money to pay for this Marxist utopia. But that’s okay; all politicians promise pie in the sky but deliver olive loaf in the gutter. The disaster of Mamdani is not inexperience and economic naivete. His worthlessness boils down to one issue: virulent hatred of Israel. When you elect someone whose rallying cry is “globalize the Intifada,” who calls Israel’s revenge against Hamas “genocide,” and who refused to co-sponsor Holocaust Remembrance Day, you’re putting power in the hands of a dangerous, evil radical.
The very fact that Mamdani was backed by AOC and by Bernie Sanders, a self-hating Communist kike if there ever was one, tells you everything you need to know—except that this guy isn’t even Arab! Mamdani is Ugandan—the country that gave us Idi Amin, child soldiers, and anti-gay legislation that makes Yemen look like Rainbow Station on Christopher Street.
So, New Yorkers, when November rolls around, you have a choice. You can reelect Mayor Adams—who may not be Giuliani but he certainly moved the city past the DeBlasio debacle. You can go Republican with Curtis Sliwa, who’s run so many times, he should campaign in jogging shorts. (Actually, I think he does.) And, by the way, the platform of pro-police, anti-crime, anti-illegals, conservative Sliwa also includes pilot testing universal basic income. Put that in your progressive pipe and smoke it!
Oh, and there’s also an independent candidate: Jim Walden, a high-powered attorney who has as much chance of winning as I have of growing my foreskin back. Then again, the impossible and unthinkable have happened so many times the past couple years, I keep Ripley’s Believe it or Not on speed dial.
What I do believe is that Big Apple Democrats now have their own Trump – a scary wildcard they chose mainly to signal their exasperation with the status quo. Or at least I hope that was the motivation. The other option is that pro-Muslim anti-Semitism has become so ingrained in the left—even the Jewish left—that they’d vote for Bin Laden if he used the right pronouns.
Me? I fear for New York and America, not because Zohran Mamdani will build concentration camps or start pogroms, or close all the delis. I dread a culture that turns a blind eye to hateful ideology and a deaf ear to common sense. Too often, socialist policies meant to provide a safety net instead ignite lawlessness. But look on the bright side: there’s always sharia law.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, (you should pardon the expression), New York.
click above to watch episode #987 click above to listen (audio only)
Here is the 987th episode of the long-running radio show/video podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook, Saturday morning, June 14, 2025.
Featuring: Dave interviews theatrical Randy Packer; Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on Sly & Bri; StoryTime (Alien Tomato); Greeley Times; Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Buckeye).
Guest: director Randy Packer, spiritual leader Rabbi Sol Solomon
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce: Sly Stone and Brian Wilson, Come Blow Your Horn, Dr. Demento 01:14:30 GUEST: Randy Packer 01:58:30 GREELEY TIMES 02:23:30 STORYTIME: Alien Tomato (by Kristen Schroeder) 02:40:30 Friends of the Daverhood 02:53:00 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #194: Sly & Bri 03:01:00 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED: Buckeye, CO 03:04:00 DAVE GOES OUT
Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #194 (6/14/2025): SLY & BRI
This Rabbinical Reflection first aired June 14, 2025 on the Dave’s Gone By video podcast.
Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections are heard on the long-running Dave’s Gone By radio/video podcast program (davesgoneby.com) and then archived as text and audio on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com, where a transcript of this Reflection may be read.
Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage show, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon,” which played in NYC in Nov. 2011 and Aug. 2012.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for mid-June 2025.
Oy, what a sad week for music-loving Boomers like yours jewly. On Monday June 9th, Sylvester Stewart, aka Sly Stone, passed away at the surprisingly old age of 82. Just two days later, Brian Wilson, wunderkind of the Beach Boys, left this world at the very same age.
Talk about influential! Not only are rap and hip hop children of Sly’s beats, but any music group with a big sound and a desire to be inclusive and idealistic owes a debt to the Family Stone. After all, the band comprised white guys, black guys, an Italian dude, and women, including their keyboardist Rose and beloved trumpet player, Cynthia. If she had done nothing else but scream “All the squares go home” and “all together now!” her place in music history would be secure. And the person who gave her that place was Sly Stone, whose songs like “Everyday People,” “Stand,” “If You Want Me to Stay,” and “Everybody is a Star” reached for the stars and grabbed them. At their peak, Sly and the Family Stone were like the 4th of July, a 1960s peace march, and a Diddy party all rolled into one.
Meanwhile, the Beach Boys began as a whiter, mellower party: California kids catchin’ a wave, cruisin’ in cool cars, and already feeling nostalgic about their youth and good times slipping away. And, as Brian Wilson deepened his themes, he simultaneously morphed into one of the greatest arrangers in pop history. If Phil Spector built a wall of sound, Wilson constructed a Legosphere of harmony, eccentricity, and fun. When the album Pet Sounds came out, the Beatles heard it and said, “We’ve gotta do better.” They did. And when “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was released, Brian Wilson said, “I’ve gotta do better.” He didn’t. And laboring on Smile, or Smiley Smile, or “Smiling the Smiles of Guy Smiley” broke Wilson’s brain. Still, for a short time, Sly Stone and Brian Wilson had the Mozart thing: God was comin’ through them, touching everything they did.
Now, is it because they were both crazy? Did they each self-destruct because that level of genius has to flame out after burning so bright? Maybe. They also did a mountain of drugs. Brian, already a schizophrenic, used coke and LSD to enhance his creativity; Sly, wanting to take himself higher, used PCP and crack because back then, that was a rock star. Both of these idiots mashed their cerebrums into oatmeal. Sly turned paranoid, canceled gigs, ran through his fortune, and squandered every opportunity for a comeback owing to his aberrant behavior. Brian was a little luckier. He found a therapist, who was both a shyster and a miracle worker. Depressed, bedbound, and obese, Wilson nonetheless kept coming back to music, and by the 1990s was again recording, producing, and even touring. They say the last two years he was struggling with dementia but…when wasn’t he?
So, kids, here’s a cautionary tale: to quote South Park’s Mr. Mackey, “Drugs are bad, m’kay?” Say all you want about personal freedom, state law versus federal, edible versus smokeable—if you’re gonna put your mind on a rollercoaster, the seatbelt is not guaranteed.
Which brings us back again to the consolation prize that both Sly Stone and Brian Wilson lived a lot longer than their lifestyles promised. Both men saw themselves appreciated and sampled by new generations, and revered for their contributions to culture. Sly taught us to accept that different folks have different strokes. Brian looked at our burdensome world, and, rather than complain, sought the silver lining saying, “Wouldn’t it be nice?” God only knows what music would have been without the two of them.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York. Boom Shaka laka laka boom.
click above to watch episode #986click above to listen (audio only)
Here is the 986th episode of the long-running radio show/video podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook, Saturday morning, June 7, 2025.
Special Broadway edition! Featuring: Host Dave Lefkowitz chats with Muny artistic director and executive producer Mike Isaacson and with theater critics Leslie (Hoban) Blake, David Finkle, Charles Gross, Brian Scott Lipton, Jonathan Mandell, Carey Purcell, David Sheward, Raven Snook, Zachary Stewart about the Tony Award nominees; critics Robert Viagas, David Sheward, and Eva Heinemann play Tony Trivia; Rabbi Sol Solomon offers his Rabbinical Reflection on the Tony nominations; and Dave offers a quick season overview and Says Bye to theatrical friends of the Daverhood who have left us.
Guests: artistic director Mike Isaacson; theater critics Leslie (Hoban) Blake, David Finkle, Charles Gross, Eva Heinemann, Brian Scott Lipton, Jonathan Mandell, Carey Purcell, David Sheward, Raven Snook, Zachary Stewart, Robert Viagas; spiritual leader Rabbi Sol Solomon.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:09:00 Other Awards 00:18:00 GUEST: Jonathan Mandell 00:27:00 GUEST: Carey Purcell 00:43:30 GUEST: Mike Isaacson 01:01:30 GUEST: Brian Scott Lipton 01:15:00 GUEST: David Finkle 01:30:00 TONY TRIVIA w/ Eva Heinemann, David Sheward, Robert Viagas 02:19:30 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #193: Tony Awards 2025 02:29:00 GUEST: Charles Gross 02:39:30 GUEST: Zachary Stewart 02:52:00 DAVE SAYS BYE: in memorium 02:57:00 GUEST: Raven Snook 03:08:30 GUEST: Leslie (Hoban) Blake 03:19:30 The Season Overview 03:30:00 DAVE GOES OFF
June 7, 2025 Playlist: “Blossom Time” (00:00:01; Joseph C. Smith); “Oh, Lady Be Good” (03:38:30; Carl Fenton)
Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #193 (6/7/2025): TONY AWARDS 2025
This Rabbinical Reflection first aired June 7, 2025 on the Dave’s Gone By video podcast.
Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections are heard on the long-running Dave’s Gone By radio/video podcast program (davesgoneby.com) and then archived as text and audio on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com, where a transcript of this Reflection may be read.
Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage show, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon,” which played in NYC in Nov. 2011 and Aug. 2012.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
More on Rabbi Sol: shalomdammit.com
TRANSCRIPT:
RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #193 (5/31/2025): Tony Awards 2025
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for June 7—Tony time!—2025.
As the emcee in Cabaret says, “Where are your troubles now? Inside, outside—they’re goddamn everywhere!” But for one night, we dial back our anxiety and dyspepsia over the world around us and fixate, joyously, on art. The Tony Awards, honoring excellence on Broadway, is more than a bunch of navel-gazing artistes congratulating each each other because, at least for a while, they don’t have to get a real job. No, the American theater can be spectacular: meaningful, playful, beautiful, a temple—just without the yarmulke bin.
And I make this synagoguian analogy because every year I do a special Rabbinical Reflection celebrating Broadway—in particular, the Jews who make it happen. Sure, the Great White Way isn’t that white anymore, and that’s a good thing, but let’s be clear: without us chosen, those curtains would be closin’.
Just look at the winners of the special awards this year: Harvey Fierstein! Lifetime Achievement recipient for La Cage, Torch Song, Kinky Boots, he even played Tevye. There wouldn’t be Newsies without Jewsies! And besides, who but a Jew would title a musical, A Catered Affair?
If Harvey Fierstein is a ringer, let’s not forget another honoree: Michael P. Price. He spent 40 years in Connecticut regional theater doing a good deed for the Goodspeed. Price told the Jewish Ledger, and I quote, “The Jewish community is essential to any arts endeavor. I find it difficult to separate my work in the theater and my work as a Jew.” Personally, I find it difficult to separate anything about me from Jewishness, up to and including my prostate. But I digress.
I must say it is disappointing that all the Tony nominees for Best Play are as goyische as a ham sandwich dipped in a martini. These are the first names of the playwrights: Sanaz, Jez, Kimberly, Cole, and Branden. Hearing those names makes me feel like I’m on a trawler in Martha’s Vineyard. There’s a bit better luck with the musicals. David Yazbek did the songs for Dead Outlaw, and Will Aronson co-wrote the sleeper hit Maybe Happy Ending. I don’t think any of the creators of Death Becomes Her are Jewish, but the show is about two bitchy women constantly getting work done, so…close enough.
That said, where are the Jews in the performance categories? Lead actors run from the Irish George Clooney to the Korean Daniel Dae Kim, while the women range from Irish Laura Donnelly to Irish Mia Farrow. There’s one girl named Sadie but…not that kind of Sadie. At least a couple of the featured performers are tribal: Jessica Hecht of Eureka Day identifies as a reconstructionist Jew; Danny Burstein is only half-Jewish, but he’s playing Herbie in Gypsy and, like Harvey he was once a Tevye, so…we’ll take him.
Still, the paucity of Yidlach in this year’s Tony roster distresses me. Have my people stepped away—or been nudged away—owing to the gusher of anti-Semitism in which the liberal community now bathes itself? Are Jews last year’s news because audiences whoop at every Star Search yodel and smugly applaud every woke dogwhistle, but they’ve forgotten how to sit still and watch? Maybe Jews are sparse because Broadway producers pick one or two avatars to represent the race—say, Tom Stoppard and Joshua Harmon—but more than that feels excessive?
Whatever the reason, it would be nice to see a Hebraic renaissance at next year’s Tonys. Nominees will wear their Jewishness proudly—the actors putting on snug tuxedo pants that outline their foreskinless fazoozles, the actresses brazenly displaying their original noses. And when some deluded nominee strides the carpet displaying a Palestinian flagpin or a red hand for Gaza, may they be outnumbered by a sea of blue and white buttons, with six-pointed stars and a hamsa with the middle finger pointed straight up.
Let me close by offering some lyrics from the admirable if ponderous musical revival of Floyd Collins, written by two Jews: Tina Landau and composer-lyricist Adam Guettel — who’s Richard Rodgers’s grandson, no less. At the end of the show, the lead character sings, “Only Heaven knows how glory goes, What each of us was meant to be. In the starlight, that is what we are; I can see so far.” And then he dies because he’s stuck inside a cave. Spoiler alert! Oops, I should have said that before I…but anyway: every artist working on and off-Broadway, no matter their race or ethnicity, is laboring to create a glimmer of glory, a wondrous escape from our cruddy world—even when they have to bury our noses in the crud to help us understand it. Music, drama, dance—they help us see what we are, and boy can they take us far.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York. Curtain up—and stay away from caves!
click above to watch the interviewclick above to listen (audio only)
Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with public speaker BERNIE FURSHPAN
Topics include: cabaret, Metropolitan Room, the Holocaust, Judaism
Segment aired May 24, 2025 as part of the 984th episode of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio/video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.
Please Note: Segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast.
All content (c)2025 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
click above to watch episode #985click above to listen (audio only)
Here is the 985th episode of the long-running radio show/video podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook, Saturday morning, May 24, 2025.
Featuring: Guest: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews public speaker Bernie Furshpan; Inside Broadway; Greeley Times, Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Buchanan)
Guest: cabaret mogul Bernie Furshpan; spiritual leader Rabbi Sol Solomon
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce: new sloths, blackout 00:16:30 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Bernie Furshpan 01:17:00 MY OLD PHLEGM 01:35:00 GREELEY TIMES 01:56:00 DAVE GOES FURTHER IN: drawing, Sheep & Wool Festival, potato truck, envelopes, toasters 02:39:00 INSIDE BROADWAY 03:01:00 Friends of the Daverhood 03:11:00 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED (Buchanan, CO) 03:13:00 DAVE GOES OUT
click above to watch episode #984click above to listen (audio only)
Here is the 984th episode of the long-running radio show/video podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook, Saturday morning, May 3, 2025.
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews comedian Brett Singer and an excerpt of Sol’s 2005 interview with singer-songwriter Jill Sobule; Greeley Times; Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Brumley, CO); Dave’s Big Dictionary (sleuth);
Guests: comedian Brett Singer; spiritual leader Rabbi Sol Solomon.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN: Jill Sobule, Ruth Buzzi 00:25:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Brett Singer 01:17:00 GREELEY TIMES 01:38:00 DAVE GOES FURTHER IN: Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival 01:56:30 DAVE’S BIG DICTIONARY: sleuth 02:12:30 Friends of the Daverhood 02:23:00 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED: Brumley, CO 02:28:30 GUEST (vintage, from 2005): Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Jill Sobule 02:58:00 DAVE GOES OUT
click above to watch the interviewclick above to listen (audio only)
Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with comedian and former theatrical press agent BRETT SINGER
Topics include: stand-up comedy, press agents, theater, writing, Into the Woods
Segment aired May 3, 2025 as part of the 984th episode of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio/video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.
Please Note: Segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast.
All content (c)2025 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
