Letters

16 LETTERS 5TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION SPONSORED BY

3 MARCH 2022 Letters to the

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FIVE YEARS OF THE JEWISH WEEKLY

Dear Yossi and the team at The Jewish Weekly,

Kisharon wanted to wish you a Mazal Tov on the 5 year edition of the paper. We value your paper and the news you share with Kisharon and the wider community.

Wishing you many more years of success.

Kind regards,

Richard Franklin

CEO Kisharon

Dear Editor Yossi, My family and I LOVE your newspaper. I have been reading the Kids Weekly section since the very first edition and our Shabbat is not the same without a copy of the Jewish Weekly newspaper at our table on Friday night. I always like reading out the jokes and riddles to my fantastic family and it’s a race for me and my Dad to see who can guess the Word Wheel quickest!

Thank you for enhancing our Shabbat. Happy 5th birthday to the paper.

Yours sincerely

From Jonah, age 10.

Bubby Hecht mourned by 500 descendants

BY DAVID SAFFER

Jewish New Yorkers and Chabad are mourning the death of Rebbetzin Chava Hecht last month (February 8th, 7 Adar I, 5782).

Affectionately known as ‘Bubby Hecht’, the 95-year-old greatgreat grandmother was blessed to have around 500 descendants.

Married to the late Rabbi Yaakov Yehuda (J.J.) Hecht, over eight decades, Rebbetzin Hecht balanced raising 12 children, including two adopted, with communal commitments. She mentored thousands of Jewish women and girls for over 70 years and worked for Jewish causes throughout her lifetime.

Oldest of three children, Chava was born in 1926 in New York to immigrants Emilelech and Esther Leah Lasker. She excelled at mathematics whilst also studying at BaisYaakov after-school seminary, a precursor to the first all-day girls’ school in 1943.

In 1945, Chava married Rabbi Hecht, director of the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE) that ran projects for the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.

Rabbi Hecht, who passed away in 1990, also hosted a Jewish radio program on New York’s WEVD and served as a pulpit rabbi.

The day of their marriage, the couple had a rare private audience granted with the Sixth Rebbi, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn.

Rebbetzin Hecht credited this audience

with their future life together. In 1947, they took up a key post at Congregation Yeshiva Meir Simcha Hakohen and led it for 43 years. Rabbi and Rebbetzin Hecht visited pioneering orthodox boys Camp Agudah in 1952 in New York’s Catskills region. After writing to the Rebbe, they opened Camp Emunah for girls (today known as Camp Emunah Bnos Yaakov Yehudah), the following summer. As camp director, Rebbetzin Hecht accepted dozens of children on full and partial scholarships annually. Involved in Jewish education for women from an early age, she first taught at Beth Rivkah girls’ school in Brownsville and was involved with the Released Time program after her marriage. An active member of N’shei Chabad, Chabad women’s orRebbetzin Chava Hecht a”h PHOTO: CHABAD.ORG ganisation, in 1975, Rebbetzin Hecht created Taharat Hamishpacha International to bring mikvah to the masses. She also directed Toys for Hospitalised Children. Rabbi and Rebbetzin Hecht enjoyed a close relationship with the Rebbe, who was sandek at the brit milah of their first born son. When another son, Sholem Ber, married in Australia in 1968, the Rebbe instructed both to address Australian Jewish communities. Soon after presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. The Hechts ensured his life was remembered during talks.

Rebbetzin Hecht was part of a Chabad delegation that met President Barack Obama to mark Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., in honour of the Rebbe’s life’s work in 2015.

The first woman to join the annual White House delegation of senior Chabad officials, Rebbetzin Hecht continued to fulfil community roles.

Rebbetzin Hecht suffered tragedy when her son, Gershon Sabol, died in 2020. Her brother, Rabbi Tzvi Moshe Lasker of Bnei Brak, Israel, passed away January 2022.

She is survived by her children Rabbi Sholem Ber Hecht (Queens, NY), Bassie Raskin (Brooklyn, NY), Rabbi Yossie Hecht (Johannesburg, South Africa), Fraide Sabol (Greenfield Park, NY), Rabbi Shea Hecht (Brooklyn, NY), Dovid Sabol (Greenfield Park, NY), Rivkie Abramowitz (Brooklyn, NY), Chana Rochel Duchman (Los Angeles), LeviHecht (Brooklyn, Y.)., Rabbi Shimon Hecht (Brooklyn, Y.), Binie Tenenbaum (Irvine, Calif.), grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great grandchildren and sister, Tziporah Goldberg of Brooklyn.