Rabbi Yehoshua Hecht
Present at the petira were three of his nine children, Rabbi Aaron Hecht of San Francisco, together with his two elder sisters Rabbanit Nechama Kantor and Rabbanit Esther Kaplan of Brooklyn.
Remarkably, the day and hour of his passing coincided with the hour and day of the two hundredth Yahrzeit anniversary of the saintly Bal-HaTanya Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812) who passed away a few hours after Shabbat Parshat Shemot, on the eve of Tevet 24, 5573.
The Sad News and the Funeral
Within minutes, the news quickly spread that one of Americas greatest pulpit rabbis and rabbinic leaders had passed away and preparations for the funeral began to take shape. Rabbi Hecht’s sons in California, Connecticut and France and his daughter from Michigan and children in New York were contacted so that they could make arrangements to attend their beloved father’s funeral.
In Brooklyn, Mr. Jack Avital, one of Rabbi Hecht’s most devoted friends’ and parishioners was contacted by the Hecht family and asked to inform the greater Sephardic community in Brooklyn and Deal, NJ, of the sad news that their devoted father Rabbi Abraham Hecht had passed on.
Arrangements with the NYPD were made to provide police motorcade escort throughout the funeral procession, which drew thousands of participants.
Indeed, the Syrian Jewish community as well as North American Jewry had suffered a great and irretrievable loss that has yet to be understood or assessed.
The Funeral Procession A Life in Review
At the Shomrei Hadat Chapel in Boro Park, Brooklyn, the standing room only crowd spilled out to the adjoining streets as many hundreds of men and women tearfully recited the chapters of Tehillim that were read aloud, verse by verse, by Rabbi Hecht’s two elder sons-in-law noted author and scholar Rabbi Mattis Kantor and noted educator and scholar Rabbi Nochum Kaplan. In addition to the nine children of Rabbi Hecht, many of his grandchildren and great grandchildren were in attendance.
The head of the Rabbinical Court of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, Rabbi Herschel Kurzrock and the executive director of the Rabbinical Alliance Rabbi Gershon Tanenbaum led in the recitation of Psalms.
Chief Rabbi Saul Kassin and rabbis from the yeshivah and Hassidic community, as well as many Sephardic rabbis were present at the funeral, attending upon very short notice. Upon the conclusion of the brief ceremony at the chapel, the procession was led by police motorcade to Congregation Sharre Zion where the street in front of the synagogue was closed to vehicular traffic.
The rare honor of placing the aron, the casket, on the steps to the entrance of Shaare Zionas was done for Chief Rabbi Jacob Kassin’s zt”l funeralhad hundreds of people surrounding Rabbi Hecht’s aron, chanting special prayers and Tehillim led by the hazzanim. It was a very moving scene, listening to the Chief Rabbi of the community Hakham Saul Kassin shalit”a offering an emotional farewell to his good friend Rabbi Abraham Hecht. Rabbi Kassin extended words of hizuk (inspiration) to the Hecht family followed by a eulogy which I gave.
In a brief hesped (eulogy), I pointed out that my father was the person who bridged the worlds of the Jewish people and united them together in service of G-d and His Torah. He united the world of Sephardic traditions and Ashkenazic traditions, the world of the ardent Hassid in devoted loyalty to his Rebbe and the world of the pulpit rabbi in service to his flock.
My father’s unique ability to interact with great world leaders and statesmen while taking care of his congregants and community, is a rare combination that requires greatness and nobility of spirit. My father always had a smile and a word of encouragement and took the time to help everyone with their problems and concerns.
After the ceremony at the steps of Shaare Zion, the people carried the aron from Shaare Zion to Rabbi Hecht’s former home at 2110 Ocean Parkway.
At the Rebbe’s Shul One More Time!
From there the motorcade made its way to the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s shul and yeshivah at 770 Eastern Parkway. As the hearse passed, a huge crowd of Hassidim and yeshivah students converged to display their respects to the beloved elder Hassid and Gadol BaTorah.
More than 72 years ago, Rabbi Abraham B. Hecht was an 18 year old yeshivah student enrolled at the Rebbe’s yeshivat and he was one of the original founding 10 students of this world famous yeshivah. It was from there that at the young age of 22 he received his rabbinical ordination and semiha.
Rabbi Abraham Hecht A Third Generation American
Rabbi Abraham B. Hecht was born April 5, 1922 (Nissan 7, 5682) into an established Orthodox Brooklyn family. He was the third of six children, all boys, to his American-born father Mr. Samuel Hecht (Yehoshua) and mother Sadie (Sarah). He and his siblings
Growing up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, their home was always filled with visiting Sages and rabbis from all over Europe and Israel. These leaders arrived in New York to collect tzedakah and financial support on behalf of the charitable institutions and Torah centers of learning back home.
Rabbi Hecht fondly recalled the weeks and months on end, when he and his brothers would give up their beds for visiting rabbis or emissaries who were staying at the home of his parents for Shabbat or the chagim (holidays).
Young Abraham was profoundly influenced by the Shabbat visits to his maternal grandparents home where his savta (grandmother) Reb Sheya Oster told riveting stories of the holy Bal Shem Tov as they sat wide eyed at the Shabbat table, illuminated by the flickering Shabbat candles.
He was intrigued that his father Reb Yehoshua (Sam) Hecht, a successful Lower East Side businessman, had been sent by his own father Reb Hersh Elimelech Hecht from his New York birthplace to study in the Holy Land. Over a period of six years from before his bar mitzvah to 18 years of age,”Sam the American” imbibed the spirit of holiness of the old yishuv (Jewish community in Israel). At a time when the Holy Land lay under the Ottoman Empire and raising observant children in New York was rare, sending one’s son to study Torah overseas was rarer still.
Sending away his American-born son Sam was a sacrifice for Torah-true Judaism made by Rabbi Abraham Hecht’s paternal grandfather Reb Tzvi Elimelech Hecht, who had arrived in New York in 1885, from Poland.
Six Yankee Brothers All Orthodox Rabbis
Rabbi Hecht and his brothers grew up in an era where it was the norm and expectation for the new generation to discard Torah and mitzvah practice and to leave the observance of mitzvot for the older generation to pursue.
Despite all of these blandishments, the Hecht brothers swam upstream defying the pull and currents of religious indifference so prevalent at the time. The American value of individuality and self-expression was utilized by young Abraham and his brothers to buck the trend and to develop into first rate Torah scholars imbued with a strong Jewish identity and loyalty to the Jewish people.
The Kloiz and later on the Rayim Ahuvim Shul were pulsating centers of round the clock prayer and Torah study in the Brownsville section, especially on Shabbat. Young Abraham and his siblings would dispense refreshment to all of the people who came to study Torah on Friday night during the winter months or on Shabbat afternoon during the spring and summer.
Young Abraham and his five brothers were the first generation of fruit brought forth by the sacrifices and devotion of their father and grandfather as they planted their family on American soil nourished with Torah values. They were born in the USA with Torah, prayer and acts of loving kindness running in their veins.
Mikveh and the Rebbe’s Blessing
In 1929, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, visited America. This just two years after his life was miraculously saved from the hands of the Soviet communist who had imprisoned and tortured him for his selfless work on behalf of Jewish observance in the former Soviet Union. While in America, the Rebbe inquired as to where he could immerse in preparation of the Shabbat.
The Rebbe’s assistant was told that Reb Tzvi Elimelech Hecht had a mikveh in Brownsville. When Tzvi Elimelech heard that the Rebbe would be visiting his mikveh, he feverishly got to work and had the mikveh freshly painted and cleaned. He had new runner carpets placed inside and made sure that the Rebbe’s visit would be as comfortable as possible. When the Rebbe exited the mikveh, Reb Tzvi Elimelech was offered a tidy sum as payment. Reb Tzvi refused to take any money from the Rebbe stating that he felt his obligation was to raise funds for the scholars and rabbis in Europe and Jerusalem, so how could he accept any money from the holy Rebbe? However, he would be more than gratified to receive a blessing from the Rebbe. To this the Rebbe responded, “I give you my blessing that your grandchildren will be Hassidim,” and so it became just as the Rebbe blessed.
The Early Years
In the 1930s, attending the then-fledgling Yeshiva Chaim Berlin an elementary school co-founded by his grandfather and followed by a stint as a young student in Mesivta Torah Vodaath he was attracted to Hassidus and Lubavitch by the personality of the great Hassid Rabbi Israel Jacobson, zt’l the “point man” of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, zt’l. Rabbi Jacobson was a distinguished Brownsville pulpit rabbi in his own right.
In 1939, at age 17, Abraham Hecht was already a fiery Lubavitcher Chabadnick who joined the legendary group of nine other American students who went to Europe to learn in the Rebbe’s yeshivah.
They were there for no more than three weeks when the first German bombs were dropped on Polish soil in the vicinity of Otwock. Several weeks later, the American contingent found itself safely back home, with Rabbi Hecht poised to begin the next chapter of his life.
The Yeshiva Years
At Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, where the previous Rebbe had settled after his miraculous escape from Europe in 1940, Rabbi Hecht excelled in his learning and grew in his devotion to his Rebbe. “He is one of my best talmidim (students),” the Rebbe once said of him.
On Sivan 13, 1943, Rabbi Hecht married Lillian (Leiba) Greenhut A”H, the daughter of Rabbi Boruch Greenhut zt’l and his wife Miriam, among the first families to arrive in Williamsburg in 1939. As a young married man, Rabbi Hecht’s careeras a statesman par excellence for his Rebbe, the Holy Land and the Torahtook flight.
In the early and mid forties, Rabbi Hecht worked directly for the Previous Rebbe and his successor son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneersohn zt’l (1902-1994), putting in several years on shlichut (outreach) founding Torah day schools for Jewish youth. The day schools he founded called Achei T’mimim were in Worchester, MA, Buffalo, New York; Newark, New Jersey; New Haven, Connecticut,and finally Boston, Mass where he successfully founded a boys day school and a girls day school with a registration of hundreds of students.
A Match Made in Heaven
It was as the rabbi of Brooklyn’s Syrian Sephardic community that he rose to great prominence; lending that community the American-born leadership they needed in the postwar years. Over the next six decades he remained an indelible part of the community, presiding over countless bar mitzvahs, weddings, and synagogue services for Shabbat and the chagim alike.
With many young men just returning from serving in the armed forces during WWII it was the young and dynamic Rabbi Hecht who drew them back to embrace the traditions and ways of their ancestors. Having been exposed to anything and everything during their sojourn in the armed forces they needed someone to confide in and to relate to their challenges, questions and doubts about their future as Jews in America. It was indeed a match made in heaven with the young rabbi of Magen David Rabbi Abraham Hecht reaching out and embracing the new generation of American Syrian Sephardic Jews.
Shaare Zion and the Growth of the Community
His speaking style was inimitable. Folksy yet brilliant, congenial yet compelling, he connected with his audiences as he spoke from the heart, conveying not just the topic at hand or the subject of discussion, but the topic or subject as he knew it and believed it in his own heart.
His Shabbat and Yom Tov speeches drew capacity crowds, with the masses converging on Congregation Shaare Zion on Brooklyn’s Ocean Parkway, where he actively served as rabbi for over 40 years, to hear his words of inspiration and instruction. Combined with his hundreds of stints as guest speaker all across the nation and world, the phrase vrabim heishiv may’avon (and he turned many away from folly) is eminently applicable to his lifetime of teaching and public speaking, and in a manner that not only brought listeners back but inspired them to follow his lead.
In his capacity as the face of New York’s Syrian Sephardic community, Rabbi Abraham Hecht never shirked his duties when it came to standing up against the dismissive, denigrating discrimination too often inflicted upon Jews of Sephardic descent.
Not only was he the “protector of the Sephardim,” as a community member put it, he was moser nefesh for the Jews trapped in Syria and Egypt, using his political connections in the highest corridors of powerincluding American presidents, most of whom he met personallyto effect results that only today are coming to light.
A Multifaceted Rabbi
During those same early years, Rabbi Hecht became involved in the Rabbinical Alliance of America, the venerable Igud HaRabbanim, whose presidency he later assumed and kept for a number of decades. All through the years, as a face of American Torah-true Orthodoxy, Rabbi Hecht was not only a writer/teacher of Torah and transmitter of the Mesorah, but greatly respected by the top tier of Torah leadership as he defended Torah against attacks on her integrity.
In his trademark “Hamburg” hat he was comfortable in the highest spheres of Torah leadership, acquainted with the most renowned rabbis and scholars of America, Europe and Israel. He enjoyed friendships with Israel’s Chief Rabbis going back to the 1950s, yet at the same time he evinced a warm and friendly personality, able to connect with and charm even the most ordinary people with his old-fashioned gentle manliness. His integrity was not to be compromised. His loyalty was to the truth and devoid of any political or personal agenda.
He Knew When to Take a Stand
For Rabbi Abraham B. Hecht it was Kavod Shamayim and Kavod Am Yisroel that were most important. In his Igud HaRabanim capacity, he spearheaded a strong stance on the issue of Mihu Yehudi “Who is a Jew,” which insisted on defining Jewish identity as having a Jewish birth mother or Halachically valid conversion.
In later years, Rabbi Hecht also fought like a lion for the twin issues of shleimut haaretz and pikuach nefeshopposing the ceding of any holy land to enemies of the Jewish people so as to protect Jewish life as codified in Shluchan Arukh, courageously opposing the now-as-then disastrous Oslo I and II Accords, in hindsight a correct position.
Rabbi Hecht spoke up wherever Jewish life was in danger; his was one of those voices of leadership heard loud and clear, even when not politically expedient.
Despite difficulties created by left-leaning Israeli governments, the love and devotion and respect for the people for Israel and leadership has not diminished one iota; in the annals of modern Jewish American history, Rabbi Abraham Hecht is the only congregational rabbi to be visited by most of the Chief Rabbis of Israel including Rabbi Avraham Amar who visited the Sephardic Home in Brooklyn to celebrate Rabbi Hecht’s 90th birthday and this year Rabbi Yona Metzger who was the guest speaker at the Rabbinical Alliance siyum hashas that was held at the Sephardic home in the presence of Rabbi Hecht.
A Rabbi’s Rabbi Never To Be Forgotten
Rabbi Abraham B. Hecht was a rabbi’s rabbi for over 60 years. He demanded much of himself, encouraged his children to accomplish and achieve for the cause of Torah-true Judaism and taught his family to never to give up. He was a link to our glorious past and a vibrant synthesis of Torah and Hassidut permeated with love of his fellow man.
It is in everlasting tribute to these values he leaves generations of congregants who yet remember with love his thrilling talks and Shabbat sermons, Torah classes and those heartfelt personalized speeches under the wedding canopy. He brought honor and dignity to the community he loved. He nurtured and tilled the soil of our potential bringing forth the majesty and brilliance of the Sephardic Syrian community we are today.
The Family of Rabbi Hecht
He is survived by his younger brother Rabbi Sholom (Sidney) Hecht, sons Rabbi Eli Hecht, Rabbi Yossi Hecht, Rabbi Yehoshua Hecht, Rabbi Ari Hecht, Rabbi Yisrael Hecht; daughters Mrs. Nechama (Rabbi Mattis) Kantor, Mrs. Esther (Rabbi Nochum) Kaplan, Mrs. Rochel (Rabbi Avrumie) Wineberg, and Mrs. Shani (Rabbi Naftali), and many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Yehei zichro barukh.
