A Jersey City rabbi who died on Sunday after being gravely injured when struck in a hit and run on Sept. 21 is being buried today at King Solomon Memorial Park in Clifton.
JERSEY CITY -- The man who died Sunday after being gravely injured in a hit-and-run accident earlier this month was a rabbi for 15 years and described by grieving family members as "scholarly" and "talkative."
Rabbi Zechariah Lewi, 58, of the Commandment Keepers Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Newark was struck by a vehicle at about 7 p.m. while crossing Route 440 at Danforth Avenue on Sept. 21. At the time of the accident, he was returning home to Society Hill from his IT job in New York.
"He was scholarly, humble, giving, caring, generous," said Zadikim Yisrael-Lewi, the wife of the rabbi, who was born William Kennedy in Harlem and went by his religious name. "He went the extra mile for people and he always listened in a situation and was not quick to pass judgment.
"It's ironic that his life was taken by someone who did not have the courage to stop," the grieving wife added as she sat in her home with family and friends this morning as they prepared to leave for the funeral.
Police are still investigating the hit-and-run and looking for the driver who fled the scene. A witness told police the vehicle that struck Lewi was a black four-door Toyota Camry or Corolla with shiny rims and tinted windows, Jersey City police said.
Lewi suffered two broken legs, a broken pelvis, collapsed lungs and had bruising on the brain, said Yisrael-Lewi. He died at 2:51 p.m. on Sunday with his wife at his side at the Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health.
Yisrael-Lewi said her husband studied at the Israelite Academy in Queens and that he was versed in the Torah, Talmudic studies and Cabalism. He became a rabbi in 2000, five years before the pair married, she added.
The night of the accident, Yisrael-Lewi returned home from her job as a legal secretary in New York at about 7:30 p.m. and was walking across the intersection when she saw the aftermath of the accident, not knowing her husband had been injured.
"I saw a sock and glasses and I did not know they were his," Yisrael-Lewi said. "I thought, 'This must have been a very bad accident.' When I got home the security office called and said there had been an accident."
She walked back to the intersection and an officer said that her husband was at Jersey City Medical Center. She rushed to the hospital where another officer told her a speeding car had struck her husband and sped away, but that there was a witness.
"I don't know that you can describe what that's like," Yisrael-Lewi said of her husband's death. "To stand there and to watch someone who was healthy, well-oriented, to have life just go, and you are standing right there is just an unbelievable experience."
Family members and friends said Lewi was very intelligent and laughed about it. His cousin, Gary Humphry, said "He was very smart and he let you know it."
The victim's wife added: "He was talkative, but it depended on the subject matter. If he was highly engaged in the subject, he would say, 'I'm not finished yet,' or 'Wait, I'm not done.'"
Asked what they would say to the hit-and-run driver who killed their loved one, Humphry simply remarked, "Coward." Another family member said she would tell the driver to "have a conscience and think about the family he left behind and who loved him unconditionally."
"Turn yourself in," added Yisrael-Lewi.
Meanwhile, a memorial page for Lewi has been posted on the BlackJews.org website. The page said that a few months ago Lewi opened for Commandment Keepers in Newark.
Anyone with information on the fatal hit-and-run is asked to call the Jersey City police tip line at 201-547-JAIL.