Northeastern Matriarch of Jewish Education Passes Away at 91
Regarded as a matriarch of Jewish life and education in southern Connecticut, Rivkah Hecht passed away July 8 at the age of 91. A transplant from Malden, Mass., she arrived in New Haven in 1946 with her husband, Rabbi Moshe “Maurice” Hecht. Together, they established and presided over a network of schools responsible for the instruction of tens of thousands of Jewish students.
Born to Shmaya and Eta Krinsky, Hecht grew up in a home continually open to visitors from afar. Like her siblings, she would often reminisce about one guest in particular, Rabbi Yitzchak Horowitz, who was known in the Chabad-Lubavitch community as “Itche the Diligent” and travelled from town to town to raise money for Jewish education in Europe and for communal causes behind the Iron Curtain.
“His bed was never used,” Hecht once related. “He would have his learning stand and would study on it the entire night.”
In 1941, she married Moshe Hecht, then a young rabbinical student at the new Lubavitch yeshiva in New York.
Her husband worked in his father’s business until the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory, sought to tap into the young couple’s talent for Jewish activism. In 1942, he instructed them to move to Worcester, Mass., stating: “Until today, you have earned your living by that which comes from the earth. In the future, you will earn your bread from Heaven.”
The Hechts found early success in the northeastern United States. The young rabbi knocked on the doors of Jewish families to convince them of the benefits of religious education, while Rivkah Hecht organized Jewish women. When it became clear that one school would not be enough for the local community, the couple opened an additional Jewish school on the city’s east side.
The Sixth Rebbe then instructed the Hechts to establish another school in New Haven. Immediately after he received the telegram, Moshe Hecht took a train to the Connecticut city to lay the groundwork for the new institution.
On its opening day, the school consisted of four students learning in the dining room of a private home. Two years later, the student body numbered 120 children.
Today, the Southern Connecticut Hebrew Academy calls a sprawling eight-acre campus in the town of Orange home. Hundreds of children attend classes there, from daycare through high school.
Debbie Sessel, who knew Rivkah Hecht towards the end of her life, said that the school stands today as a testament to her take-charge attitude.
“She committed hours of dedication and support to the school,” said Sessel. “This was the focus of her entire life, and while she gave all the credit to her husband for the school, we all knew that she had a major part in its establishment and growth.”
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