Chabad dedicates new Torah

By DIANE KOVEN
Ottawa Correspondent

OTTAWA — If any of the neighbours in the fast-growing area of Barrhaven in suburban Ottawa were looking out their windows on Sunday afternoon, May 28, they may have thought a movie was being made at a construction site on Cedarview Road.

What other possible explanation could there have been for the parade of singing and dancing people following a truck with speakers blasting unfamiliar music, or for the strange-looking canopy hoisted by men carrying four poles, or the children following in a miniature train with clowns along for the ride?

But this was no movie set. Under a tent erected across the street from the Ottawa Torah Center Chabad’s storefront premises, on property destined to hold a new synagogue, a scribe was perched on a riser, where those assembled could watch him fill in the last few letters of a new Torah scroll.

The Torah was donated by the parents of Rabbi Menachem Blum who, with his wife Dena, arrived in Barrhaven 10 years ago to spread the Chabad message. They began by holding services in the basement of their home and as attendance increased, they established a shul in a strip mall across from undeveloped land.

Construction has now begun there for a new housing development and land has been purchased for a synagogue building. Several houses surrounding the property have already been purchased by Jewish families anxious to live near the new Chabad shul.

The new Torah was dedicated in memory of Rabbi Blum’s late uncle, Yosef Yitzchak Lewin, who had lived in Belgium and Israel before his untimely death two years ago at age 54.

“My family came from all over the world – from France, Israel, New York – to celebrate a special occasion as we remember a dear uncle who was very dear to us and it is a very special occasion for my family,” said Rabbi Blum in welcoming the large crowd who joined the celebration. “But I address you as my family because when a new Torah comes to a community, it is a simchah for us all and we celebrate as a family.”

In addition to members of the Jewish community and representatives of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, the Israeli Embassy and other congregations, several local politicians also attended.

Lisa McLeod, newly elected MPP for Nepean-Carleton, spoke first. “I just opened up my constituency office. I couldn’t be more proud to be here with Rabbi Blum today because he helped me open my constituency office and he allowed me to help you to celebrate the opening of your new spiritual home,” she said.

McLeod promised to fight for “fairness in education.”

“I am going to be pushing this idea forward in the legislature and I know that when this government changes and we have a Conservative government, this will come into being. I want to work with this community” she said.

Nepean-Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre spoke of his travels to, and support for, Israel. “There was no more proud moment for me, as a member of Parliament, than when Prime Minister [Stephen] Harper said in the House of Commons that we would no longer send a single cent to the Hamas government [in the Palestinian Authority],” he said.

The procession continued across the street to the existing synagogue, where the Ark was opened and the two older Torah scrolls were taken out to “greet” the new arrival.