By COLlive reporter
Family and friends of Rabbi Avraham Lieder OBM gathered to mark his Shloshim on Monday evening, at the Chesed Center in Crown Heights where he operated the Ahavas Chesed organization for many years.
R’ Velvel Farkash, who worked for many years with Rabbi Lieder in Ahavas Chesed, described Rabbi Lieder’s work assisting people with medical emergencies and patients in hospitals.
His son Naftoli Lieder made a Siyum on Mishnayos in his father’s memory.
During the open-house event held due to COVID, people stopped by to share stories and memories of the man who devoted his entire life to Chesed and his devotion to helping Jews not only of the Crown Heights community but around the world.
Speakers included physicians Dr. Eli Rosen and Dr. Israel Zyskind and Shaya Gordon.
Dr. Zyskind, a pediatrician from Brooklyn, related that he had worked many times with Rabbi Lieder, and said that “whenever I got a call from him, it was to do a Chesed for someone else.”
“To him, a patient to him wasn’t just a number, it wasn’t just a chart,” Dr. Zyskind said. “He felt the pain, he had to do something he had to turn over the world and break any barriers to help that patient.”
Crown Heights businessman Shaya Gordon, who was Rabbi Lieder’s neighbor for many years, described how Rabbi Lieder’s doorbell rang all day, and all hours of the night, by people who needed help.
And while Gordon said the constant ringing of the bell was annoying to him when it was late at night, it never bothered Rabbi Lieder.
“It never bothered him,” Gordon said. “His bell and phone were always ringing, they never left him alone, and he always answered.”
Gordon described meeting Rabbi Lieder at the store one day, “buying a vanilla ice cream cone with sprinkles. It was for a patient in the psychiatric ward of Kings County Hospital, because that was his favorite ice cream,” he said.
“There was another psychiatric patient, who after being released, had nowhere to go, so Rabbi Lieder offered him a place to stay in his basement – and he never left,” Gordon said.
“Rabbi Lieder loved him, because he was a Jew. And he took care of him,” he said.
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You can still contribute to the Lieder family fund in support of his family.
Click here to donate now.
Hashem please send Moshiach