Yitzhak Heimowitz z"l

From Dani Heimowitz

Dear Betarim,

It is with great sadness that I need to inform you of the passing of my father Yitzhak Heimowitz this morning, Aug. 7, in Sheba Tel Hashomer hospital at age 88.

Yitzhak (formerly Netziv Betar in the US in the 1950s), his wife Phyllis and I (a 5 month old infant) made Aliyah from New York in Oct. 1968.

Yitzhak and Phyllis met in Camp Betar in 1954 and were married for 64 happy years.

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Yitz's autobiography:

Aaron Bashani wrote:

It is with great sadness that I learn of Yitzchak Heimowitz’s passing. I met him for the first time at an outreach gathering outside the old Madison Sq Garden in 1953, joined Betar, attended the historic Beit Sefer of 1954 and rose to be his Sgan Natziv and Betar Office Manager, 1957/58 on 44^th Street, before my Aliyah Alef.  He was an inspiration to all of us with his calm and dedicated leadership --  and especially his championing of a national response to Jewry’s plight that was able to unite both secular and orthodox (and everything in between) with true Hadar Betari, so needed today.

 

During the years thereafter, we had many occasions to meet and to talk on the phone. Most notable of our meetings were (1) his arrival on a visit to Israel in the early 60s when he brought me my US Army Draft Notice (I was to be exempt due to a benign hernia), (2) at Orly Airport outside Paris in 1962 (1964) when he accompanied Rosh Betar z’l on a stop-over on the way to reburial in Israel, (3) at a 1965 meeting in New York for Soviet Jewry, etc, etc

 

Among other means, he will be memorialized through the proposed International Freedom Museum on the two-front Soviet Jewry Struggle.

Let his memory be a blessing for all Yisrael

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Chuck Waxman sent this photo of Yitz with Shlomo Ariav, Sol Taubenfeld, Reuven Genn and I think a young Jonathan Friedman