Albert Hassid, elegantly dressed as always, enjoyed luncheon April 13 in a fine San Francisco restaurant and Shabbat dinner at his beloved shul, Congregation Ner Tamid. He attended the theater Saturday afternoon and died the following day.
Hassid, 86, was “a lion” and “a presence,” said family and friends, who enjoyed life to the end. An architect and real estate developer, he was also an epicure, fluent in several languages, a world traveler and active in the Jewish community, especially with the American Jewish Committee, having served on its board.
But he was also a doting husband and grandfather, and a devoted student of Torah who never missed a minyan.
“He had impeccable taste,” said his wife, Beverlee Hassid. “Because we got together late, we didn’t struggle. We had nothing else to do but totally enjoy ourselves, which we did.”
Born in Egypt into a prominent Sephardic family, Albert Hassid studied civil engineering as a young man. Along with his parents and five siblings, he eventually left the Arab world, although he retained a lifelong appreciation for Arab culture and the Arabic language.
In the early 1950s, he moved to Australia, where he established his career as architect. Hassid married and had a son. When recession hit the country in 1977, Hassid relocated to San Francisco to join his siblings and started over in real estate.
He also joined Ner Tamid, devoting much of his energy to the synagogue.
“Because he was steeped in Jewish knowledge and had extensive experience as a synagogue president, he was very committed to synagogue services, believing that the synagogue is the central institution of Jewish life,” said Ner Tamid Rabbi Moshe Levin. “His involvement came more from a commitment to the Jewish people and their continued survival.”
As congregational president, Hassid helped spearhead several capital improvement projects, including Ner Tamid’s new chapel. “He came to services every Shabbat, right up until the day he died,” added Levin. “He also was committed to reinstating a weekday morning minyan. He never missed a day.”
It was at Ner Tamid that Hassid met Beverlee, a lifelong temple member. Following their divorces to others, a romance began to blossom between the two.
“When they decided to get together, most people said he would be very hard to live with,” noted Levin. “But they also agreed that Beverlee was his equal, and she would hold her own.”
“We’re 23 years apart,” she added. “It’s a decision one makes in adulthood to say, ‘I’ll take whatever years are given to me, and we’ll make the best of them.'”
That they did. In addition to indulging their love of fine wine, food, opera and travel, Hassid also filled the role of stepfather to Beverlee’s son, Eric Goldbrener, who remembers Hassid as a towering role model.
“He was truly a great character,” Goldbrener said. “Albert became my father over the last 30 years. We were very close. He was the only person I would take advice from.”
Though uniformly described as a class act, Hassid had a silly and soft side. For an amateur theater night at Ner Tamid, he once dressed in a coconut bra. As for his soft side, when he listened to his nephew, Ner Tamid Cantor Rudy Hassid, sing Kol Nidre, he would “cry like a baby,” Goldbrener said.
Though together for several years, Beverlee and Albert Hassid did not actually tie the knot until Goldbrener and his wife Jennifer were about to become parents. “He felt strongly he wanted us to be a family,” remembers Goldbrener, who now has two daughters. “He adored the girls.”
Though he hadn’t been back to his native Egypt in 50 years, Hassid did make a sojourn there a few years ago. Subsequently, he befriended the consul general of Egypt in San Francisco. Levin said the consul general “was so impressed with him, he treated [Hassid] as an Egyptian and invited him to diplomatic events. When the consul general heard he was in the hospital he called immediately.”
Though increasingly infirm in recent years, Hassid never lost his bon vivant style. “He never looked back; he only looked forward,” he wife said. “He loved his family; he loved his religion; he loved study. He enjoyed everything to the maximum, and he died the way he lived.”
Albert Hassid is survived by his wife, Beverlee Hassid of San Francisco; son Phillip of Australia; stepson Eric Goldbrener of San Francisco; and two grandchildren.