Shea Hecht is an American Chabad rabbi, writer and radio broadcaster. He serves as chairman of the board of the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education. Hecht is a vocal supporter of political candidates. According to The Guardian, he has influence over as many as 200,000 voters in any given election. Biography Shea Hecht was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jacob J. Hecht, one of the closest confidants of Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and Chave Hecht. Hecht is one of twelve children, and a fifth generation New Yorker. He was educated in the Lubavitch Yeshiva Central School System, where he received his semikhah (rabbinic ordination). Hecht rose to prominence in the 1970s after he began a program that sought to remove and educate Jewish youths away from various cults. This inspired his autobiography, Confessions of a Jewish Cult Buster. As a community leader during the violent Crown Heights riot in 1991, Hecht worked across racial barriers in the pursuit of a harmonious side-by-side existence between the Hasidic and African-American communities. Along with Edison Jackson, he co-chaired the Crown Heights Coalition after its inception. For his leadership and service during the riots, he received the Buffalo Soldier Award. Hecht was appointed by New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as Commissioner of Human Rights. and as member of the Police Task Force Committee. In 1998, Giuliani appointed Hecht to the Committee for Proper Art in New York City. Hecht is a dean at Hadar Hatorah Yeshiva in Brooklyn, a yeshiva dedicated to fostering the Baal Teshuvah movement, as well as a faculty member of the Ivy League Torah Study Program. He also served as the spiritual leader of the Seaview Jewish Center in Canarsie, Brooklyn. Radio and press After his father died, Hecht assumed the role of host of the "Shema Yisroel" radio program, a weekly one-hour show broadcast on WEVD in New York that focused on religion. Hecht was also featured as host alongside Felipe Luciano on the afternoon drive show on WWRL, and later moved to the morning drive show alongside Karen Hunter. He currently hosts the Dov Hikind show once a month on Saturday night. Hecht writes a weekly column that has been printed in many newspapers across the world such as The Jerusalem Post, The Jewish Press, GOP USA, and Israel National News. On May 4, 2014, Hecht started a new family advice call