N.Y. Congregation Isolates Rabbi Who Said Killing Rabin Permissible

Days after a right-wing religious Jews gunned down Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Brooklyn rabbi who said Jewish law permitted such an act has been publicly isolated by his congregation for his remarks.

But, contrary to previous news reports here and in Israel, Rabbi Abraham Hecht has not been fired from Shaare Zion Congregation.

However, there are conflicting reports over whether the congregation is looking for a way to force Hecht to retire.

The controversy surrounding Hecht continued as reports surfaced in Israel that rabbis there had issued similar edicts against Rabin.

Late last week, leaders of the Brooklyn synagogue presented a letter to the Israeli Consulate in New York, saying that the statements uttered by Hecht were “his own personal views and not those of Congregation Shaare Zion.”

“We reject all messages of hate and condemn all acts of violence,” said the letter, which was addressed to Acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres and signed Morris Franco, the congregation’s president.

But Franco, in an interview, dismissed as baseless the widespread reports that Hecht had been ousted.

“I deny everything regarding Rabbi Hecht’s dismissal from the synagogue at the present time,” said Franco.

At the same time he refused to discuss what course the synagogue might next pursue with Hecht.

With regard to “what happens in the future,” he said, “I have no idea.”

Rabbi Hecht, who is in Florida, could not be reached for comment. But his son, Rabbi Yehoshua Hecht, said his father’s character was being assassinated and he had become an easy target for all the “anger, chagrin and pain” of the Rabin assassination.

“My father is not a Khomeini,” he said, referring to one of the epithets that have been directed at the senior Hecht. “He is a prince of a man. He has always had the interest of the Jewish people and the State of Israel foremost in his mind.”

Hecht made headlines in June when he said at a news conference that by conceding land for peace, Israeli leaders fall into the category of “moser,” or people who betray Jews to gentiles.

According to Maimonides, Hecht said, such people not only deserve the death penalty, but should be killed before they can perform the deed.

In late October, Hecht, the president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, penned a letter to Rabin expressing regret for his earlier statements. The alliance is a group of a few hundred fervently Orthodox rabbis.

Jews “must speak and act toward each other as we would toward God,” he wrote. “For my part, I wish to repudiate any words and actions of anger and which have caused hurt.”

According to an open letter from Hecht to his congregation after the assassination, Rabin had read the letter and “expressed his satisfaction and acceptance and my apology to those present.”

In the letter, Hecht said, “my remarks have been twisted and misconstrued and I have been quoted totally out of context.”

Nonetheless, he said, “I wish to publicly apologize to my community for causing any unintentional aggravation and pain that I may have caused them.”

Ambassador Colette Avital, Israeli consul general in New York, said she welcomed the apology at the time that it was issued. In the wake of the assassination, however, she has singled out Hecht and others who used violent rhetoric for creating a climate of intolerance and hatred that made the killing possible.

The New York Board of Rabbis, with 800 mostly non-Orthodox members, issued a similar condemnation of the harsh rhetoric.

“We believe that the recent level of vilification and demonization of Israel’s leaders by some Israelis and American Jews helped prepare the atmosphere for Israel’s tragic loss. The vituperative rhetoric has been outrageous and unacceptable and a violation of Jewish norms.”

In a statement issued by the RAA, Hecht was quoted as saying, “I quoted Jewish law as codified in Maimonides that conveys the seriousness of taking action that endangers human life. I never said nor meant that (the) – Maimonides ruling was to be applied, heaven forfend, against Rabin or any other person.”

One of the other rabbis at Hecht’s synagogue, who asked not to be identified, said there had been several closed-door meetings of the congregation’s executive committee since Rabin’s assassination.

Although he was not invited to attend the meetings, he said it was clear that the congregation had been concerned about the “public relations aspect” of the matter.

Many in the community were “very upset abut the comments” after they were made in June and “did not identify at all with the sentiments of Rabbi Hecht,” said the rabbi.

Other sources belonging to or close to the congregation who refused to be identified said that since the killing, the community had been seeking a way to dissociate itself from Hecht and his remarks and repair the “damage done to the synagogue’s reputation.”

“They wanted to clear their name,” said one.

Another said the congregation was looking for a way to force Hecht to retire.

But Hecht’s son said congregation members remained loyal to his father. He said their written repudiation of his remarks was a function of their coming under widespread attack with “their beloved rabbi out of town on vacation.”

“They are truly like a ship without a rudder,” he said.

Going to the consulate was “a knee-jerk impulse” to show “they don’t condone violence,” he said.

Meanwhile, in the neighborhood of Hecht and his synagogue, known as Ocean Parkway, one neighbor said, “I don’t think he should be fired for this.” The woman, who emigrated 15 years ago from Lebanon, has been a congregant of Hecht’s since she arrived.

The neighborhood is an eclectic mix or monied Sephardi families, who occupy narrow but grant houses that line the main boulevard, and recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who live in large apartment building nearby.

“I heard he did s’lach li,” she said, using the Hebrew words for “I apologize.”

She noted that Rabin’s confessed killer had made several assassination attempts prior to Saturday.

“It wasn’t because Rabbi Hecht said anything.”

Meanwhile, sticking out of Hecht’s home mailbox on Wednesday was the most recent issue of the Jewish Press, with bold blue headlines blaring, “World Mourns Death of Rabin.”