AVRUTICK, ABRAHAM N.

AVRUTICK, ABRAHAM N. (1909–1982), U.S. Orthodox rabbi and communal leader. Born in Russia, he received his early education in Montreal and rabbinical ordination from the Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University in 1936. He held pulpits in Fitchburg, Mass. (1936–38), Newburgh, n.y. (1938–46), and at Congregation Agudas Achim in Hartford, Conn. (1946–82). One the unique characteristics of the Hartford area in the post-World War ii era was that its rabbinical leadership in all denominations served for decades at a time and the synagogues enjoyed uniquely stable leadership. He was a leader during a time of transition, when American Orthodoxy was moving from a European-educated Yiddish-speaking rabbinate to American-educated, English-speaking rabbis who appealed to the young. He was instrumental in establishing a Va'ad Hakashruth in Hartford, which established one standard of kashrut for the community, was a long-time vice president of the Yeshiva of Hartford (later known as the Bess and Paul Sigel Hebrew Academy of Greater Hartford), and active on many communal Jewish Boards of Directors, including the Federation, Hebrew Home, and Mikveh. Nationally, he held every office in the *Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) including president (1962–64), was a founder and the first president (1951) of the Rabbinical Council of Connecticut, a member of the national board of the *Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and, as a life-long, passionate Zionist, was active in the Mizrachi Organization. In 1976, together with other rabbinic colleagues, he traveled to the Soviet Union to meet and encourage a group of refuseniks. He was honored by Yeshiva University with a Distinguished Alumnus Award and an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree (1965) and by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations with a National Award for Outstanding Rabbinic Leadership (1964). He attracted a large and devoted following because of his high religious and ethical standards combined with a pleasant demeanor, unusual sensitivity, and an ability to see God's reflection in all human beings, even those he disagreed with.

bibliography:

D.G. Dalin, J. Rosenbaum, and D.C. Dalin, Making a Life Building a Community: A History of the Jews of Hartford (1997).