
My father, Rabbi Chaplain Abraham Avrech passed away on March 15, 2014, which the Jewish calendar translates into the 13th of Adar. Thus, tonight — Jewish holidays begin in the evening, after sundown — is the second Yahrzeit, memorial, without my father’s physical presence in this world. My father was 94 years old.
He is gone, but he is certainly not forgotten.
I ponder the astonishing trajectory of my father’s life. Born in a tiny impoverished Polish town, my father and his family emigrated to America where they found the liberty to live as Jews and Americans.
My father reveled in Americanism, even as he lived the life of a Torah Jew and a religious Zionist.
Like most New York Jews, my father was a lever-pulling Democrat for most of his life. But in his later years, he realized that the Democrat party had changed into a crypto-socialist organism dedicated to subverting American exceptionalism, and the Constitution.
My father was appalled by Obama; that a man who was a member of a Jew-hating church for over 20 years was elected to this nation’s highest office was, to my father, a ghastly subversion of the ideals of the America he loved.
As we head into Purim, the holiday in which Jews remember an ancient Persian regime that sought to annihilate the Jewish people, I will read Megillat Esther and proudly remember my father: a pious Jew and a proud American.










May HaRav Avraham ben HaRav Shmuel’s neshama have an aliyah.
And G-d bless the United States of America.
Robert,
Your father’s life and legacy reminds me of a gospel song I heard long ago. The chorus of the song starts with “May all that come behind us find us faithful.” Rabbi Avrech’s faithfulness reverberates still; his influence continues still; we are all truly blessed to know him, even a little, through you.
Thank you for enlarging the VA medallion, I was just about to do that when I saw that photo.
May your father’s memory be a blessing. It surely is to me.
Robert, your family has embodied the American dream for generations. Poland’s loss was our windfall.
My family will remember yours in our prayers toady.
Best,
Patrick
This is somewhat presumptuous, but I do think your Dad would have like this:
http://israelhistoryinphotographs.com/
Respectfully, Alemaster
Thanks so much.
When I see the photo of your father’s prayer book — thoroughly worn from years of use — I can’t help but wonder how many souls (both Jewish and Gentile) benefited from his counsel and compassion as a Rabbi and US Army Chaplain. I suspect it was a multitude.
Peace be upon him and may his memory be a blessing.
Thanks for your kind words.
May his memory be a blessing and may he be a gutte better for all of us.
Amen.