Slain Gabbai Helped Build Chabad in Jerusalem Neighborhood

By COLlive reporter

“He was a tzadik in every sense of the word,” Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Kurtz says about Shaul Hai, one of the Jewish victims of the Arab terror shooting in Jerusalem this past Friday night.

Hai, 68, was the gabbai of the Zechor L’Avraham shul in the Pisgat Zeev. He was on his way to a Torah shiur on Shabbos when he was killed in the attack in the neighboring Neve Ya’akov area.

Rabbi Kurtz, Director of Chabad in Pisgat Zeev, says Hai has been supportive and has accompanied the development of his Chabad center from day one.

“When we arrived at Pisgat Zeev 25 years ago, we saw there wasn’t any shul in the neighborhood,” Rabbi Kurtz says. “We rented a small store on Moshe Dayan Street, and Shaul started coming. He was a descendant of the Ben Ish Chai, Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad (1832-1909).

“I saw he was a special person and appointed him as our gabbai, a role which he served for over 10 years,” the rabbi said. “He was always the first person to arrive. He would open the doors and organize everything with great dedication. He was a humble person.”

When Rabbi Kutrz moved out of the storefront and built a permanent center (a replica of 770 Eastern Parkway), Hai remained at the same location, serving as a gabbai to a Sephardic shul that rented the location.

Despite the move, the two kept in touch. “Every Wednesday or Thursday, he would come to our Chabad House to pick up a hundred copies of Sichas Hashavua and distribute it in the local shuls and a few mailboxes. He would also take copies in Russian, French, and English.”

Rabbi Kurtz says the killing of Hai and fellow Jews on Shabbos “hurts very very much.” He said, “we are all broken and sad about this. Shaul was holy in his life and holy in his death.”