{"id":35379,"date":"2014-03-17T14:29:02","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T14:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=35379"},"modified":"2014-03-17T18:32:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T18:32:00","slug":"memoriam-rabbi-abraham-avrech-june-4-1919-march-15-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/memoriam-rabbi-abraham-avrech-june-4-1919-march-15-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam: Rabbi Abraham Avrech June 4, 1919 \u2014 March 15, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published on Seraphic Secret<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"avrech\"<\/a>
My father, Rabbi Abraham Avrech. This photo was taken when he was a student in Yeshiva University. Soon afterwards, he joined the Army as a Chaplain and served in the Rainbow Division.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My beloved father, Rabbi Avraham Avrech, passed away on Saturday, Shabbat. He was 94 years old.<\/p>\n

The funeral is tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n

I will be sitting\u00a0shiva<\/a>\u00a0for seven days.<\/p>\n

Seraphic Secret<\/em>\u00a0will be on hiatus until my shiva ends.<\/p>\n

Born in the town of Yanuv, Poland, my father came to America with his mother, Miriam and brother and his Chaim z\u2019l, when he was 4 years old. My grandfather, Rabbi Shmuel, z\u2019l, was a shochet, ritual slaughterer and mohel, specialist in ritual circumcisions.<\/p>\n

My father attended Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and then Yeshiva University where he was ordained as a Rabbi. He enlisted as a Chaplain in the U.S. Army, 42nd Division, and served during World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. \u201cThe Army is the best thing that ever happened to me,\u201d my father said. Serving until mandatory retirement, my father was honorably discharged with the rank of Colonel.<\/p>\n

My father is one of the Greatest Generation. \u201cWe were poor,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we didn\u2019t know it. Everyone was poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

All his life my father served family, community and country, with selfless devotion.<\/p>\n

There is no greater role model.<\/p>\n

\"avrech2\"<\/a>
My father is the little boy on the left. His brother, Chaim, on the right. The woman holding their hands is my great grandmother. Miriam, my grandmother is to the rear. This photo was taken in Poland. The men in uniform are probably relatives, but I don\u2019t know who they are.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"avrech3\"<\/a>
My father was a star athlete. He excelled in basketball though he\u2019s only about 5\u20194. This is the Yeshiva University basketball team, 1938-39. My father, center, front row, right, holds the ball. Also holding the ball is Rabbi Irving Koslowe, z\u2019l, one of my father\u2019s best friends. Rabbi Koslowe went on to be the Jewish Chaplain at Sing-Sing prison. His first duty was to accompany Ethel and Julius Rosenberg to their executions. \u201cShe was the strong one,\u201d he told me, \u201cShe was a true believer. Not an ounce of remorse.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"avrech4\"<\/a>
Chaplain Avrech leads Jewish services during the Korean war. I once asked my father of what he was most proud during his service in the Army. He told me that once he led Protestant services because there was no Christian Chaplain available. \u201cI performed a real mitzvah,\u201d he said.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"avrech5\"<\/a>
Touching home. My father was a fanatic baseball player. A fast and elegant short-stop, he was so talented he was scouted by the majors. But because my father was Orthodox\u2014Shomer Shabbos, Kosher food, etc.\u2014my father declined an offer to try out for a major league farm team. This shot was taken in a Brooklyn park where Sunday baseball was a ritual. My father is scoring the winning run at the bottom of the 9th inning. It doesn\u2019t get any better.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"avrech6\"<\/a>
As an orthodox Jewish Chaplain, my father was frequently underestimated by his fellow officers. Dad took full advantage of this soft anti-Semitism, and cheerily accepted challenges to play ping-pong for small wages. At first, my father would fumble around, lull his opponent into a false sense of security, and then boom! he\u2019d unleash a vicious overhead slam that left the other guy speechless \u2014 and a few bucks lighter. Dad was like Paul Newman in \u201cThe Hustler,\u201d minus Piper Laurie and broken thumbs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"avrech7\"<\/a>
My father worked at Yeshiva University for over 30-years. He was Director of Community Service Division and Director of Alumni. This shot was taken in the early 60\u2032s in his YU office. As a child, when my father took me to work I just loved watching him interact with students, Rabbis, and teachers. Every once in a while a student needed a loan. Most YU students were from very modest homes. My father would shoo me out of the office when he made the interest free loans from a fund he administered. He didn\u2019t want to embarrass the student.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"avrech8\"<\/a>
A few years ago, My father was visiting us in Los Angeles. One afternoon, I was sitting in my office, cleaning my guns. My father asked if he could pose with one of them. He chose my Ruger Bird\u2019s Head, a classic cowboy revolver. The first movie my father ever took me to see was a John Wayne film. My father loved Westerns. He understood the moral landscape of the Old West where good and evil struggle for dominance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Baruch Dayan Emet, Blessed is the True Judge.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published on Seraphic Secret.   My beloved father, Rabbi Avraham Avrech, passed away on Saturday, Shabbat. He was 94 years old. The funeral is tomorrow morning. I will be sitting\u00a0shiva\u00a0for seven days. Seraphic Secret\u00a0will be on hiatus until my shiva ends. Born in the town of Yanuv, Poland, my father came<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32932,"featured_media":35409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Memoriam: Rabbi Abraham Avrech June 4, 1919 \u2014 March 15, 2014 - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/memoriam-rabbi-abraham-avrech-june-4-1919-march-15-2014\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Memoriam: Rabbi Abraham Avrech June 4, 1919 \u2014 March 15, 2014 - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article was originally published on Seraphic Secret.   My beloved father, Rabbi Avraham Avrech, passed away on Saturday, Shabbat. 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