Rabbi Zachary I. Heller

HELLER, Rabbi Zachary I. Of Newton, on Monday, March 22, 2010. For 40 years the beloved husband of Lynne (Epstein). Devoted father of Rabbi Joshua & Wendy Heller of Atlanta, GA, and Dr. Miriam Heller Stern & Jonathan Stern of Los Angeles, CA. Loving "Saba" of Caleb, Amelia and Ezra Heller, Elijah and Judah Stern. Devoted son of the late Rabbi Abraham Mayer & Frances (Lesser) Heller. Services at The Levine Chapels, 470 Harvard Street, BROOKLINE on Tuesday, March 23 at 1:00pm. Burial at the Shaarei Tefillah section of Chevra Shas Cemetery, 776 Baker Street, West Roxbury. Shiva and Minyan will be announced at the service. Donations in Rabbi Heller's memory may be made to In-Patient, 7 Feldberg Oncology Fund or Leukemia Research Fund c/o James D. Levine MD at BIDMC, 330 Brookline Ave., Boston, MA 02215, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, PO Box 8500, Philadelphia, PA 19178 or Congregation Shaarei Tefillah, 35 Morseland Ave, Newton, MA 02459. A gifted speaker and thinker, academic and pastor, Rabbi Zachary Heller has played notable roles in the theory and practice of synagogue and Jewish communal life worldwide. For the past 12 years, he has served as Associate Director of the National Center for Jewish Policy Studies at Hebrew College, Newton Center, MA. Previously, he was the senior rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, Bayonne, NJ for 29 years. He was known as a mentor to rabbis serving on the faculty of STAR: Synagogue Transformation and Renewal. He was known internationally as President of the World Council of Synagogues, and expressed his lifelong commitment to Zionism as a member of the boards of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization. He has written on a variety of issues including world Jewry, bioethics and contemporary U.S public policy. He has published four books, including "Synagogues in a Time of Change" and "Re-envisioning the Synagogue" and dozens of articles, including a chapter in "Death, the Final stage of Growth" by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. He has lectured worldwide, in England, France, Switzerland, Holland, Hungary, the former Soviet Union, Israel, Canada, and New Zealand. Levine Chapels, Brookline 617-277-8300