Leading Orthodox rabbi dies in automobile crash
Rabbi Zev Segal, 91, led national body in intergroup effort
, NJJN Staff Writer | 03.13.08
 

Sidebar Frum communities bond in search effort

When Rabbi Zev Segal's car plunged into the Hackensack River on March 5, the Orthodox world lost not only an important national figure but one who was seminal in the development of the Orthodox movement in New Jersey.

Perhaps best known as president of the Rabbinical Council of America from 1968 to 1971, Segal was a synagogue rabbi who headed a Newark Jewish school that would evolve into the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy in Livingston, a top-ranked Modern Orthodox yeshiva.

In fact, the 91-year-old Segal was en route to the Kushner Academy in Livingston when family members reported him missing. He had just left the studio of WFMU-FM in Jersey City, where he had taken part in a 25th anniversary tribute to JM in the AM, a Jewish radio show hosted by his son, Nachum Segal.

A subsequent search ending in police confirmation that he died after driving into shallow water at the end of Duncan Avenue below the Pulaski Skyway sent shockwaves throughout the community.

"He was an elder statesman," said Kushner's current head of school, Susan Dworken. "He was the leader who created [the school's] philosophy and its general structure. It is very sad. He really made a difference in the Jewish community in this area. He had a lot to do with the school, and he was very influential in Newark in its heyday."

Segal was born in Russia in 1917 and immigrated to Palestine before moving to the United States in 1939.

From 1939 to 1978, he served as rabbi at Young Israel of Newark, an Orthodox congregation that stood across the street from at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.

In addition, Segal served as head of education at the Yeshiva of Newark, which evolved into the Hebrew Youth Academy of Essex County and moved to South Orange, Hillside, and West Caldwell before becoming the Kushner Academy.

Norman Samuels, a professor of political science and provost emeritus of Rutgers University, was president of the Hebrew Youth Academy's board when it was located in South Orange.

"Zev Segal was the essence of the school," said Samuels, who is president of the NJ Jewish News board of trustees. "He dominated it and kept it alive. I think the Orthodox community in Essex County would probably not exist in its present form except for what he did to keep it going in key moments."

Bruce Shoulson, a West Orange attorney and vice president of the Jewish Historical Society of MetroWest, followed Samuels as president of the Hebrew Youth Academy's board.

He described the six-foot, one-inch rabbi as "a very impressive-looking man in terms of height, and as impressive as he was, he was also impressive in terms of getting his agenda done. He was certainly a major figure, and it is unfortunate that as years passed, people lost sight of who he was and what was his contribution."

A New York Times obituary said Segal's tenure as RCA president was marked by both tension with non-Orthodox movements over theology and practice and a readiness to work with those same movements and other religions to combat social problems.

According to the Hudson County prosecutor's office, Segal died of natural causes. There was no evidence of foul play.

"He was supposed to go to the Kushner Academy, pick up his mail, and come back to WFMU at 10:30 a.m.," said Ken Freedman, the station's manager. "He was going to pick up Nachum and drive home to the Lower East Side."

But he never showed up at the station or at Kushner.

Shortly after the rabbi's disappearance, station staff alerted police, sent e-mails, and helped organize a search party that drew hundreds of volunteers from Orthodox communities as far away as Ocean County in New Jersey and Rockland County, NY (see sidebar).

The hunt ended after 1 p.m. the next day, March 6, when the rabbi's green Mercury sedan was spotted in the Hackensack River.

Segal is survived by his wife, Esther, four sons, two daughters, 25 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

He was buried in Israel following a March 7 funeral service at the Bialystoker Synagogue in New York.

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Frum communities bond in search effort

Fittingly for a rabbi known for promoting inter-group cooperation, the search for Zev Segal drew upward of 300 volunteers – Lubavitcher and Satmar hasidim, Modern Orthodox and haredim, as well as members of the non-Orthodox Jewish and general communities.

"It is not every day we have a major collaboration between all our groups," said Benyomin Lifshitz, a member of the Crown Heights Shromrim Patrol, a neighborhood watch group in Brooklyn. "That feeling alone of coming together gave us a big sense of hope. Given that we all have our different sects and our own politics, coming together to help was very important."

When the 91-year-old Segal was reported missing March 5, the Hatzoloh ambulance corps took charge of the search effort and moved its mobile command post from its Flatbush headquarters to a Jersey City parking lot. By evening, members of Shomrim had joined them to canvass unfamiliar neighborhoods in the dark.

"We brought in eight or nine cars with 25 or 30 members, and they gave us maps with highlighted grids," Lifshitz said.

Methodically, the volunteers patrolled the streets, looking for the missing green sedan with the New York license plates. At daybreak, some of the hunters headed for work and were replaced by a second shift.

The search ended March 6 when State Police spotted Segal's car submerged in the Hackensack River.

In and outside the Orthodox community, many marveled at the way its members were able to mobilize.

"When people die, there is the habit in the Orthodox community of people calling each other and e-mailing ‘Did you hear?'" said Norman Samuels, provost emeritus at Rutgers University and president of the NJJN board of trustees. "I think that network kicked in. Everybody who knew him or knew about him felt an obligation to call one another."

On the morning of March 5 Stephen Flatow, a member of the Orthodox community in West Orange, received an e-mail describing the rabbi's car and appealing for help. As he headed to work in Jersey City, Flatow heard about Segal's disappearance on JM in the AM, the radio show hosted by the rabbi's son, Nachum. Flatow spent some time looking for the missing Mercury en route to his office.

He had a premonition.

"I thought he might have driven into the Hackensack River," Flatow said. "It is a terrible, desolate, inhospitable area. I had a terrible feeling this is what might have happened."

Flatow had met Segal at the Hebrew Youth Academy in the late 1970s. The rabbi left him with a lasting impression.

"I remember he was a tall, dignified-looking guy who looked like a rabbi, ramrod straight with a black hat slightly at an angle. He was very impressive," Flatow said.

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Local stories posted courtesy of the New Jersey Jewish News