Tragedy has struck the Crown Heights community both emotionally and physically. On Tuesday evening, April 22, 25 Nissan 5785, Rabbi Menachem “Mendy” Raitport was killed and his son was seriously injured in a car accident on I-95 in Georgia. The two Raitports were heading back to Brooklyn by car when the heartbreaking accident occurred, having spent Pesach in Orlando, Florida.
Rabbi Raitport was 57 years old. He leaves behind a wife, Esther, and eight children – Eliyahu, Yehuda, Shloimy, Dovid, Dubi, Avrami, Zevi, and Chanoch. He is also survived by his parents, noted philanthropists Rabbi Yitzchok and Shaindel Raitport of Borough Park, as well as five brothers (Moishe Raitport, Chaim (Milka) Raitport, Shloime Zalman Raitport, Yossi Raitport, and Ezriel Raitport) and seven sisters (Chana Kaplan, Peshy Waxman, Miriam Rothberg, Rivkah Raitport, Bracha Sternbach, Fraida Mindel Hess, and Batsheva Raitport). Rabbi Raitport was predeceased by his brother, Sholom Dovber Raitport z”l.
A family member who answered the phone at the Rabbi Raitport’s parents’ house but did not wish to be identified told The Jewish Press, “He was a very special, honest, and happy person. He always had a full table on Shabbos holding about 40 people, including the less fortunate. He served everyone with a smile. He had a very generous heart.”
One person who knew Rabbi Raitport well was his classmate Rabbi Velvl Butman, executive director of Chabad Lubavitch of Westchester County. “Mendy was a walking menorah – his face lit up when you met him,” said Rabbi Butman, who called his friend “a soulful person.”
“Mendy had a special warm heart as a kind and caring person with a smile to match. He enjoyed his friends. He loved saying inspiring words of encouragement,” Rabbi Butman continued. The two sat together at a farbrengen on the 19th of Kislev in honor of the anniversary of the liberation of the Alter Rebbe from a Czarist Russia jail. It was the last time they would see each other.
Rabbi Raitport had a unique connection to the Lubavitcher Rebbe. “When we were students in yeshiva, in the mid-1980s, he felt blessed that the Rebbe instructed him to write a weekly or biweekly update and report to the Rebbe,” Rabbi Butman recalled.
There was another connection between Rabbi Raitport and the Rebbe, which was told at the same farbrengen. “Mendy shared with us that when he was five years old, he went with his father to see the Rebbe at 770 Eastern Parkway for a blessing in honor of their mutual birthday on the 22nd day of Tammuz,” Rabbi Butman shared.
A Political Career
Since 2010, Rabbi Raitport had been a perennial candidate for office on the Republican and Conservative lines. Whenever a county chairman needed a candidate to fill a line on the ballot, Rabbi Raitport was always able and willing to fill the slot.
“Mendy, as he was known to his friends and family, was a highly respected member of the Crown Heights community and a dear friend of the Brooklyn Republican Party,” Kings County Republican Party Chairman Richard Barsamian said in a prepared statement. “We were honored that he represented the Party as our endorsed congressional candidate last year and also as an Assembly candidate in a previous election. Above all, he was a devoted husband and father of eight children. He leaves behind an amazing legacy of faith and kindness. May his memory be eternal and a blessing to his family.”
Even elected officials who didn’t agree with Rabbi Raitport’s views respected his integrity. “It was very hurtful to hear about his passing,” Assemblyman Brian Cunningham (D – Crown Heights) told the The Jewish Press. “We shared a different ideological belief. I don’t think he ever thought he would win an election, but he certainly championed his ideas and gave voters an opportunity to express those ideas through the general election process. He was always someone trying to push the envelope forward in terms of the advancement of the community. His determination, insight, and ability to want the community to do well was something that felt to me very genuine.
“Even the issues we disagreed on, I felt we always had an understanding and a north star as to how we wanted the community to move forward. We shared similar values about the importance of faith, the importance of family, and certainly the importance of our community to move forward,” Cunningham said.
Although Rabbi Raitport ran for the state Assembly five times, it was never against Cunningham. He also ran for Congress twice and for Brooklyn borough president once. All told, he ran for office eight times in 15 years as either a Conservative, Republican, or both. He never came close to winning an election, receiving at most about 25 percent of the vote, according to Ballotpedia.com.
A Businessman and Community Stalwart
For 25 years, Rabbi Raitport was the owner of Crown Kosher Meat Market on Kingston Avenue, providing kosher meat to the kehillah with high standards of kashrus and care. He mastered the anatomy of cows and chickens in his job as a menaker (separating the kosher fat from the non-kosher fat in an animal) in the field of shechitah, and authorized the hechsher for various kashrus supervising agencies, such as the CHK and Skver organizations.
He was also an experienced EMT and longtime member of Hatzolah, the community volunteer ambulance corps.
Rabbi Raitport was buried at the Montefiore cemetery in Queens on Thursday, April 24. May his memory be for a blessing.
