Rabbi Alvin Kass, NYPD chaplain for nearly 60 years, dies at 89
The NYPD is mourning the loss of Rabbi Alvin Kass, its chief chaplain.
Commissioner Jessica Tisch said he died Wednesday at the age of 89, and was one of the department's longest-serving members.
"This morning, we lost an NYPD legend, Chief Chaplain Rabbi Kass, who served the city of New York and the NYPD for six decades. During his career, Rabbi Kass comforted the grieving, he counseled the troubled, and he reminded all of us of the deeper purpose of why we do what we do," Tisch said.
"Rabbi Kass was a pillar of strength and comfort for the NYPD," Mayor Eric Adams wrote on X.
Rabbi Kass' career
Kass joined the NYPD in 1966 at the age of 30, becoming the youngest chaplain in the department's history. He became chief chaplain in 2002.
Tisch said he was a U.S. Air Force veteran and Columbia University graduate, and that at every Police Academy graduation he offered a prayer that New York be "a place where people of every race, religion, color, and creed can pursue their individual destinies untrammeled, unafraid, and in obedience to thy will."
Tisch said Kass was a source of strength through many tough times, including being one of the first to console officers' families on Sept. 11, 2001.
During September's Rosh Hashanah security briefing, Rabbi Kass said, "We must never come to the conclusion that the world always has to be the way that it is today, because there are forces working in the world to make things better."
Friend Devorah Halberstam made sure to show up early for his speeches.
"I loved him so much and when I heard he was ill, I actually wept because, for me, you don't even want to let go of somebody of that caliber. We need more people like him to rise to the occasion," Halberstam said. "We are living in times where there is so much hate and yet he knew how to bring people together."
"He led with his heart"
Rabbi Marc Schneier, the founding senior rabbi of the Hampton Synagogue, succeeded Kass as the president of the New York Board of Rabbis in the 1990s.
"Alvin Kass became a great mentor and a great source of guidance and inspiration for me," Schneier said. "He led with his heart. The heart is the truest index of the person's humanity, and Rabbi Alvin Kass was a man and a leader of great compassion, goodness, kindness. He led with his heart. He saw all New Yorkers as sharing not only a common faith but a common face."
The Police Benevolent Association posted on social media, "Every time we bowed our heads for one of his prayers, we appreciated his deep faith, his old-school wit and his unshakeable devotion to the men and women who protect New York City."
Rabbi Michael Miller, CEO emeritus of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said he knew Rabbi Kass for 40 years.
"Someone exceedingly special," Miller said. "He said about cops that he loves cops because cops deal with life and life can be very raw. He was the one who brought the salve to kind of handle the rawness of the job and to soften it a little bit."
In 2016, during and NYPD tribute to his then-50 years of service, Kass said, "Police officers are a tremendous source of uplift to each other. It's a kind of a brotherhood and sisterhood and great privilege to be a part of a very select group of wonderful people," adding, "I don't have any secret. I just do this instinctually. I just do this instinctually. I enjoy life. I love life. I'm thankful every day to be able to get up."
The funeral for Rabbi Kass is set for Friday at the East Midwood Jewish Center, where he was rabbi emeritus.
He was pre-deceased by his wife, Miryom, and leaves behind three children and three grandchildren.