Shea hecht

Rabbi Shea (Yehoshua) Hecht - is the chairman of the board of National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education. He is the son of the late Rabbi Jacob J Hecht, the closest confidant of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Grand Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
Rabbi Hecht is a fourth generation New Yorker, born in Brooklyn. He was educated in the Lubavitch Yeshiva Central School System, where he recieved his smicha (rabbinic ordination).
Rabbi Hecht rose to prominence in the 1970s after he began a program that sought to remove and educate Jewish youths away from various cults. This gave way to his autobiography, "Confessions of a Jewish Cult Buster."
After his father passed away, Rabbi Hecht assumed the reins as the host of the "Shema Yisroel" radio program, a weekly one-hour show that focused on religion broadcast on WEVD in New York.
Rabbi Hecht, as a community leader during the violent Crown Heights Riot[] in 1991, worked across racial barriers in the pursuit of a harmonious side-by-side existence between the Hasidic and African-American communities.. For his leadership and service during the riots, Rabbi Hecht received the Buffalo Solder Award, .
Rabbi Hecht was appointed by New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as Commissioner of Human Rights and as member of the Police Task Force Committee. Additionally, in 1998, Mayor Giuliani appointed Rabbi Hecht to the Committee for Proper Art in New York City.
On radio Rabbi Hecht also was featured as host alongside Phillipe Luciano on the afternoon drive show on WWRL , later he moved to the morning drive show alongside Karen Hunter.
Rabbi Hecht is also widely known as a marriage counselor and for his innovative seven circles of relationships.
Rabbi Hecht also served as the spirtual leader of the Seaview Jewish Center in Canarsie, Brooklyn.
Currently, Rabbi Hecht is a dean at Hadar Hatorah Yeshiva in Brooklyn, NY, a yeshiva dedicated to fostering the baal teshuvah movement, as well as a faculty member of the Ivy League Torah Study Program, .
Rabbi Hecht is married to Baila Hecht (nee Sufrin), the daughter of the late Rabbi AD Sufrin from London. Together they have ten children. Son, Rabbi Yitchok Hecht, is a director of Chabad of Ulster County (NY). Son, Levi Hecht, is a real estate developer in New York, was named one of the "People to Watch" in the Hudson Valley in 2005. Daughter, Chanchi Goldstein, is the co-director of Chabad at the University of Michigan. Daughter, Sara Feller, is a schlucha in the Chabad of Twin Cities (Minnesota). Son, Rabbi Hanoch Hecht, also known as the Six Minute Rabbi (for his quick, inspiring Torah lessons) is the director of Chabad of Dutchess County and the spiritual leader of the Rhinebeck Jewish Center in Rhinebeck, NY, . Daughter, Binie Itkin, is a co-director of the Chabad of Greene County (NY). The rest of his children are still in school.
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