In Memoriam

Remembering Professor Emeritus and Rabbi Neil S. Hecht, Renowned Jewish Law Scholar

Hecht, who was also an expert in evidence and property law, founded the Institute of Jewish Law at BU Law and helped create the Jewish Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools.

Neil S. Hecht, a student and scholar of Jewish law who taught at Boston University School of Law for forty-six years, beloved by students and colleagues alike, passed away on November 11 at ninety years old.

Hecht also researched and published in the areas of evidence and property—his publication Long-Term Lease Planning and Drafting was selected as a sourcebook for real estate transaction seminars by the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Continuing Education.

Best known for his contributions to halakha, generally translated in English as “Jewish law,” Hecht helped create an intellectual home for the subject in the United States. He founded the Institute of Jewish Law at BU Law in 1983 and remained its director until he retired in 2010. In 1985, the institute began publishing the Jewish Law Annual, a peer-reviewed publication on Jewish law, Jewish philosophy, Jewish history, and biblical studies. The journal quickly became the pre-eminent forum for English language scholarship on Jewish law in the United States and internationally, and is now housed at Hebrew University.  In 1992, Hecht also helped create the Association of American Law Schools’ Section on Jewish Law, which he once chaired. Hecht was honored by the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford for using Jewish law to solve a riddle surrounding its Greek Metrological Relief statue.

In Windows onto Jewish Legal Culture Volume 1, published in 2011 and co-edited by Hecht, the introduction states that in Jewish legal culture:

After Hecht retired in 2010, the Jewish Law Annual published a festschrift—or collection of writings—in his honor, calling him “a man of vision and action.”

Hecht made “a monumental contribution to the flourishing of Jewish law scholarship in the United States,” the editors wrote. He “understood that for a discipline to thrive, it must have an intellectual ‘home’ to provide the infrastructure for the exchange of information and research, and serve both as a meeting place for researchers and an anchor for individual scholars.”

From the helm of the Institute of Jewish Law, they continued, Hecht had a hand in “almost every major endeavor in the field of Jewish law.”

At BU Law, where Hecht was on the faculty for nearly half a century, colleagues could “connect with Neil about anything,” said Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Dean and Ryan Roth Gallo Professor of Law.

She continued, “Neil dedicated himself to his values in every aspect of his life. While his time connecting with his colleagues and the community at BU Law can be quantified in years, it may be more aptly quantified in the lasting impact of his genuine kindness. We will continue to remember Neil by acting on what we most value.”

Many marveled at Hecht’s kindness. Professor of Law Emerita and former William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor, Wendy Gordon, asserted, “His kindness was amazing.  Talking to him felt like I was making contact with some stream of life that was sweet and deep.”

Hecht earned his undergraduate degree in philosophy from Yeshiva College in 1954; he was the highest-ranking student in each of his four years and also competed on the varsity fencing and debate teams. In 1956, he received rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Three years later, he graduated from Yale Law School, where he was on the board of editors of the Yale Law Journal.

He practiced as an associate at two law firms in New York and served as vice president and general counsel of an investment banking firm before returning to his legal studies, this time at Columbia Law School, where he earned an LLM and a Doctor of Juridical Science in 1964 and 1972, respectively.

Hecht began teaching at BU Law in 1964 and was promoted from associate professor to full professor of law in just two years’ time. In addition to his role as founding director of the Institute of Jewish Law, he was co-director of the Joint Project in Jewish Legal Bioethics, a collaboration among BU Law, the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, and the School of Public Health, from 1991 to 2007.

Among the many publications he wrote or edited are Jewish Jurisprudence; Selected Topics in Jewish Law; Controversy and Dialogue in Halakhik Sources; Jewish Law in Context; and An Introduction to the History and Sources of Jewish Law.

Hecht was a devoted teacher and treasured colleague who won BU Law’s Silver Shingle Award for Service to the Profession, given to outstanding contributors to the legal academic community, and the Michael W. Melton Award for Excellence in Teaching.

“No faculty member I have ever known was more devoted to his students than Neil,” shares Philip S. Beck Professor of Law Jack M. Beerman. “He was also very kind to his colleagues; we spent many fruitful hours in conversation, some serious and some more light-hearted. He helped rekindle my interest in studying Jewish law, which I treasure. I feel lucky to have known him.”

Professor of Law Emeritus David J. Seipp said Hecht inspired “love and respect” and had a keen sense of humor. He recalled a celebration of Hecht’s teaching career at which the school presented him with a “rare historic item of Judaica.”

“He took it gratefully, and immediately, with a sincere voice, said that if he had known that he would get such a valuable and tangible gift that so well embodied the subject matter of his teaching, he would have kept teaching real estate,” Seipp recalled. “I’m still laughing at that memory from decades ago.”

A cousin of Hecht’s, writing in the Jewish Press, said her relative’s life work was “bridging Jewish and secular law and charting a path for numerous students to follow.”

Hecht is survived by his wife, Renée Citron Hecht; his children, Jonathan Hecht and Sharon Kramer; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.