Rabbi Albert Gabbai, the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Mikveh Israel - the Synagogue of the American Revolution, in Philadelphia, has retired after more than 30 years at the helm of the Sephardic Community in Philadelphia.
Rabbi Gabbai was born in Egypt in 1949 to Jewish immigrant parents, whose maternal side originated from Salonika. His father was born in Baghdad to a long line of Rabbinic scholars and Torah sages. Like many Jews in Egypt, they deeply identified with French culture, and Rabbi Gabbai attended the Collège de la Salle (French Catholic School). The majority of the students were Jews, but there were Christians and Muslims as well. As a child, Rabbi Gabbai sang in the choir of the Sha'ar Hashamayim Synagogue, the central synagogue of the city.
When Nasser’s Pan Arab nationalism swept the whole Middle East, life became very difficult for the Jewish community. Many Jews began to flee the country, including four of Rabbi Gabbai’s brothers. In 1967, when Rabbi Gabbai was 18 years old and in high school, he and the rest of the family were awaiting visas to be permitted to leave Egypt when the Six-Day War broke out. Before they could leave, Rabbi Gabbai and his three brothers were rounded up by the Egyptian secret service and put in prison camps. There was no due process, no charges, no trial, and no right to an attorney. They remained in prison until June 1970.
Facing horrific conditions in the prison at first, he and his brothers feared that they were going to be killed, and their mother was told they were dead. After six months, they were transferred to a less restrictive prison, where things were safer for them as Jews. Since his family was strictly observant and had no access to kosher food, they were only able to eat simple vegetables for more than six months. Eventually, the women in his family were allowed to visit, and his mother brought him and his brothers kosher meat and chicken.
In June 1970, Rabbi Gabbai and his brothers were released. They were taken from the prison camp directly to the airport, with no time allowed to stop at home to collect their possessions. They were flown to Paris, where their mother, wives and children followed a few weeks later. In Paris, Rabbi Gabbai was reunited with his family and applied for refugee status to come to the United States. After about a year, in 1971, he arrived in New York City.
Once in New York, Rabbi Gabbai attended Yeshiva University, receiving his Semikha (rabbinic ordination) from the RIETS Seminary and initially began his rabbinical tenure at Congregation Shearith Israel in New York from 1983 to 1986 as a Assistant Hazzan. Later, he returned to rabbinical school to receive his Dayanut (Rabbinical Judgeship) and also received ordination from Rabbi Samuel Kassin at the Shehebar Sephardic Center in Jerusalem. In 1988, he joined Congregation Mikveh Israel as its Rabbi, and has faithfully served the community for more than 34 years.
We wish Rabbi Gabbai felisitasiones - mazal tov on his extraordinary career and wish him the very best.
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