Esther Bukiet, who became the matriarch of a large Chabad-Lubavitch family while providing steadfast support to her husband, Rabbi Chaim Meir Bukiet, in his many roles as a rabbinic leader passed away on March 18. She was 92 years old.
Born in 1925 in Wislica, Poland, to Shalom Yaakov and Malka Bukiet, she immigrated at the age of 3 with her parents to Montevideo, Uruguay. Two decades later, her cousin and husband-to-be, Rabbi Chaim Meir Bukiet, arrived in New York from Shanghai, China following World War II. The Sixth Rebbe—Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory—then paid for the young scholar’s passport and tickets to visit Uruguay to meet the young woman to see if it was a match acceptable to them both. It was, and after their marriage there, the couple moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., where the young rabbi began to take on many responsibilities.
During the decades to follow, Rabbi Bukiet had multiple, simultaneous roles as rosh yeshivah of Central Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch; rabbi of the Oneg Shabbos shul in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn; member of the Vaad Rabonei Lubavitch (the general Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinical board); and gabbai (chairman) of the Lubavitch Chevra Kadisha (burial society).
In addition, he took on many tasks at the personal direction of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—and was frequently contacted for advice on matters of Jewish law and practical-life guidance from community members and rabbis alike. Throughout, Rebbetzin Bukiet supported her husband in all these efforts while raising a family who would come to be leaders in Jewish communities around the world.
She is survived by their children: Mrs. Rochel Stillman of Los Angeles; Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Bukiet of Los Angeles; Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Bukiet of Kfar Chabad, Israel; Rabbi Levi Bukiet of Chicago; Mrs. Chaya Bukiet of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Rabbi Alter Fishel Bukiet of Boston; Mrs. Sarah Tzirel Kramer of Montreal, Canada; and Rabbi Shneur Zalman Bukiet of Miami.
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