BDE: R’ Herchel Pekkar, 85, OBM

With great sadness we report the passing of R’ Herchel Pekkar OBM, a Crown Heights silversmith known for his work in crafting the Chanukah menorah that is lit each year in 770. He passed away on Thursday, the 27th of Av, 5781.

He was 85 years old.

Herchel was born in 1936 in Ukraine, in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, formerly known as Yekaterinoslav.

After World War Two — during which his father, a soldier in the Russian army, was killed — he and his mother escaped to Germany, where they stayed for a time at a displaced persons’ camp near Bergen-Belsen. At age ten he was sent to live with a relative in England and attended the Gateshead and Manchester yeshivahs there. After finishing his schooling, he became a jeweler, eventually settling in London.

Although leading the life of a religious Jew, he felt something was missing, and at 18 years old, began to study Torah with a Chabad rabbi named Yankel Gurkov who introduced him to chasidic teachings and told him about the Rebbe.

Drawn to the Rebbe, since his father was the rabbi of his hometown, he wrote to the Rebbe, asking for a blessing for three things: proper intelligence, a good livelihood, and the right woman to marry.

Very soon afterwards he received a reply, in which the Rebbe said he would mention me in his prayers and wished him to share good news soon. Sure enough, two weeks later he met his wife.

Not long afterwards, in 1962, he visited to New York along with a group of Jews from England as part of a trip organized by Mr. Zalmon Jaffe. At that time, he had his first audience with the Rebbe and instantly felt that this is the connection that he was looking for.

During that audience, he discussed the issue of his livelihood, to which the Rebbe asked “Are you doing piecework or timework?” The Rebbe encouraged him to take time to improve his skills as a jeweler and pointed out that the only way that he could do that would be if he was doing piecework and was not pressured timewise. Because of the Rebbe’s advice, he set up a little workshop in his home.

One of Herchel’s more known achievements was the crafting of the Chanukah menorah that stands each year in 770, created in the likeness of the Menorah in the Bais Hamikdash.

He is survived by his wife Tzivia and children, Moshe Pekkar (Florida), Yossi Pekkar (Mexico), Chana Hurwitz (Crown Heights), and Devorah Shagalov (Florida).

Levaya information to be announced.

Shiva information to be announced.

Boruch Dayan Hoemes