Jay Litvin (1944-2004)

The Chabad.org family mourns the untimely passing of our beloved Jay Litvin, and extends its condolences to the Litvin family and Jay's thousands of friends and disciples across the globe.

Jay was so much more than a contributing writer at Chabad.org. He was a leader who blazed new pathways, taking us to places no one had dared or even imagined visiting before. In articles such as "Forgiveness," "Bitachon," "Sitting in a Café" and "Spiritual Warrior" he explored his inner life -- his spiritual struggles, his faith and trust in G-d, his love of life and fears for the future, his battle with his illness -- with a courage, integrity and wisdom that made reading a Jay Litvin article a life-altering experience for so many of us.

Jay wrote about himself, but in doing so revealed to us things about ourselves so deep and true that often a reader found it hard to believe that he or she hadn't written the article themselves. The hundreds of letters that poured into Jay's e-mail inbox provide testimony after testimony of the tremendous impact he had on our lives, whether it was guiding us through a personal tragedy or showing us how to raise a child.

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Amazingly, Jay achieved all this in the midst of a busy life devoted to running several large-scale humanitarian programs. Since 1990, he served as Medical Liaison for Chabad's Children of Chernobyl program, which airlifts children out of the areas contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. More recently, he established and ran Chabad's Terror Victims Project in Israel.

Jay is survived by his wife, Sharon; his seven children, aged 11 to 35; and his two sisters. Chabad.org has established the Jay Litvin Family Fund for their benefit.

For links to all of Jay's articles, click here.

We invite you to add a note to this page about how Jay Litvin has touched your life. Please use the "Post a Comment" form below (if you would like your message to be a private one for Jay's family only, please indicate this in your message and we will not post your comment publicly).