New Torah Scroll commissioned by Chabad Jewish Center in Glastonbury

The time-honored ritual of the writing of a Torah scroll involves many detailed customs and rites.


It’s not often that you get to see history being written before your very eyes. But that is exactly what is happening right now. The Chabad Jewish Center in Glastonbury has undertaken the writing of a brand new Torah scroll.

This new Torah has been commissioned in memory of Mark Tsvok, who passed away tragically at the age of 15. Its primary sponsor is Mark’s father, Ilya.

The writing of a Kosher Torah scroll is a thorough and exhaustive exercise.

The time-honored ritual of the writing of a Torah scroll involves many detailed customs and rites, from the material used – authentic parchment, natural ink and a special quill, to the color and style of the biblical font, to the manner in which a Torah is written – copied word-for-word from a previously written scroll, to the credentials of the Scribe.

As part of the process, the Scribe – a trained and experienced writer of scrolls in the ancient tradition – will present workshops at many area schools.

The Scribe’s Torah-writing workshops are scheduled as follows:

Tuesday, Feb. 24: 9 a.m. – Lubavitch Yeshiva Academy, 1148 Converse St., Springfield, MA; 10:30 a.m. – Hebrew High School of New England, 1244 North Main St., West Hartford; 12:30 p.m. – Solomon Schechter Day School, 26 Buena Vista Road, West Hartford; 4 p.m. – Chabad Hebrew School, 141 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury

Wednesday, Feb. 25: 9:30 a.m. – Hebrew Academy of Greater Hartford, 53 Gabb Road, Bloomfield; 11:45 a.m. – Aleph Bet Preschool, 25 Harris St., Glastonbury; 2:30 p.m. – Hebrew Academy of Greater Hartford, 53 Gabb Road, Bloomfield; 4 p.m. – Jewish Enrichment Program, 25 Harris St., Glastonbury

To schedule a visit to one of these workshops, or for more information regarding the writing of this special Torah, please call Rabbi Yosef Wolvovsky at (860) 659-2422. The Rabbi may also be reached by email at JewishLearning@snet.net

Posted Feb. 16, 2009

Chabad welcomes new torah

June 26, 2008


Members of the Chabad of Glenview celebrated the completion of a new sefer torah for the congregation with music, singing and dancing Sunday.

Virutally all of the torah was written by a scribe in Israel. The scribe filled in the last 70 letters of the scroll, many of which were "purchased" through donations, at the dedication ceremony.

The scroll was then placed in a decorated cloth casing, and adorned with a traditional silver crown and pointer for reading. Congregation members, their families and friends marched, sang and danced around the 1800 block of Glenview Road with the torah.

The torah was made in the memory of Rabbi Nochum Yosef Ben Yerachmiel, grandfather of the Chabad's Rabbi Yishaya Benjaminson. Members of Benjaminson's family, including his father and grandmother, traveled here from New York and other states to take part in the celebration.

Torah vanishes from Bais Menachem

RABBI SAYS NO SIGNS OF FORCED ENTRY

BY JILL KASSANDER, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT


University City police are investigating the disappearance of one of the Torahs belonging to Congregation Bais Menachem — Chabad on Delmar. Rabbi Yosef Landa and the congregation discovered the Torah was missing during Shabbat services on May 24.

"When we opened the ark for the Torah service I realized one of the Torahs was missing," Landa said. "A big gasp went up throughout the congregation."

The synagogue keeps two Torah scrolls in the ark, said Landa. The congregation does not have a daily minyan so the last time he saw both Torah scrolls was the previous Shabbat.

"The Torah which was stolen is the only Torah we actually own," Landa said. "It is a very beautiful, tall Torah with a red mantle, with large letters in the script style of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Ari Zal. The other Torah we have is on loan to us."

Landa contacted the University City police department after Shabbat and officers arrived within a few minutes. They interviewed Landa, filed a report and told him he would be contacted by a detective during the week.

Further research by the Jewish Light has found three thefts of Torahs from Chabad congregations in other states in the past nine months. Asked about the other thefts, Detective Mike Gage who was assigned to the case said he would be looking into the other incidents.

"We will be contacting the other police departments to compare notes and look for possible connections," Gage said.

One of the Torah thefts occurred around the end of September 2007 from Yeshiva High School in Cottage Grove, Minn.

"A Torah scroll was stolen and a video projector," Rabbi Moshe Weiss, the school's director of development said. "The Torah scroll and projector have not been recovered."

In April, a Chabad House in Miami Beach, Fla., was burned down in an apparent case of arson being investigated by fire officials, the police and the FBI according to an article on MiamiHerald.com. It is believed the congregation's Torah scroll was stolen before the fire was set.

Two scrolls were discovered missing from Congregation Bnai Zedek Chabad in Kenosha, Wis., on April 15. The small congregation has only been around for about nine months, said Rabbi Tzali Wilschanski. The rabbi was giving a class in the social hall downstairs and closed the door to the sanctuary before he left for the evening.

"There was no sign of a break-in," Wilschanski said. "I am concerned somebody might have entered the synagogue and hidden in the sanctuary because the deadbolt lock was open in the morning."

The hazzan's oversize siddur, chumashim and the rabbi's laptop computer were also stolen, though the thief left behind the silver ornaments used to adorn to the Torah.

It is not clear whether any of the thefts are connected although there are similarities in some of the cases, such as the missing books. Landa had noticed a couple of books missing about two weeks before the Torah theft.

"I noticed the large oversized siddur used by the hazzan and a large oversized book of Haftarot were missing," Landa said. "We looked everywhere and thought perhaps someone had borrowed them and forgotten to return them."

Now Landa is wondering if the two incidents are related.

"My mind was racing when I saw the Torah scroll was gone though I don't know if the events are connected," Landa said. "All that was stolen were communal articles. They did not take the pushke which has about $30 to $40 in it."

The Torah scroll is valued at $30,000 to $40,000 according to the police report, though Landa said he would have to do additional research to assess the value of that particular Torah.

Landa said he e-mailed other rabbis to alert them to the theft so they could be more watchful at their own congregations.

"This is so disappointing," Landa said. "There was no sign of forced entry. We have an open door policy. People who frequent the congregation know the code to get into the building."

Barry Parnas regularly attends Shabbat services at the congregation and was there when the theft was discovered.

"I remember the Aron HaKodesh, the Holy Ark, being opened and only one Torah being in there," Parnas said. "The first person to respond was Rabbi Landa. I think he said, 'Sefer Torah missing.'"

Sometimes the shul will use the Torah someplace else but it is always back by Shabbat, said Parnas. He said the congregation was very shaken and surprised by the theft.

"A Torah doesn't seem like something that someone would steal," Parnas said. "It seems very odd to me that someone would take it."

Landa and members of the congregation checked around the community just in case someone had borrowed the Torah and other items for a shiva house or to study.

"This is very sad for me personally," Landa said. "I'm holding out hope that I will wake up from this nightmare and the Torah will be back. I assure whoever took it total anonymity. We just want the Torah back — no questions asked."

Day Of Healing For Two South Florida Synagogues

See links at source for video.

I did not get a chance to watch, but it looks worth watching.


MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) ―

It was a day of healing and moving forward for two South Florida synagogues on Sunday; one was hit by hate and the other was damaged by fire.

A fundraiser was held at the Turnberry Jewish Center in Aventura to buy a new Torah for the Chabad Jewish Center of Miami Beach, which was damaged nearly two weeks ago in a fire. At the same time, the Torah, a religious scroll of Jewish laws and customs and a centerpiece of its religion, was taken.

"We have everyone joined together and give some donation towards it [Torah] and everyone is like joined in one Torah," said Rabii Zeb Kats of Habad Shul. "It's kind of like United Funds coming together and we are all going to have a community Torah, something that we did together."

At the Chabad of Parkland, located at 7170 Loxahatchee Rd., the Rabbi showed Hebrew school children the last of three swastikas and hateful words spray-painted on the synagogue's walls last week. Sunday, they painted over the hateful symbols.

"It's very important to show the children that not only is it relevant, not only is it something that still exists," said Rabbi Mendy Gutnick."It still exists in the world and we have to know how to deal with it, and how to overcome it."

Both of the cases are still under investigation to determine if they are hate crimes.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Miami Chabad House Burned, Arson Suspected

“Fire destroyed our shul please help”

“Fire destroyed our shul please help” was the title of the email I received from my Rabbi in Miami, Rabbi Zeev Katz on Wednesday April 23. The desperate plea in his voice expresses how many of us, congregants of Chabad on Wheels in Miami Beach, feel today. I found out yesterday afternoon that my Jewish home and sanctuary for over two years, a place that had been integral to the development of my Jewish identity, had been devastated and its interior destroyed by an overnight fire. The fire is believed to have started around 2 am and cleared at around 7 am Tuesday morning, and the area is now under complete investigation as a potential arson / act of anti-Semitism. See below article about the incident for more info and a video at the scene.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/506012.html

Below is the Chabad website with images of the destruction and information on how to donate:

http://www.chabadonwheels.com/

I spoke to the Rebbetzin, Rabbi Katz’s wife on the phone today and she told me that when the janitor of the synagogue first called them on Tuesday morning to tell them their synagogue had burned down, they thought it must be a joke. The Rabbi and his wife ran over to the synagogue, which had already been classified by the fire department as an accidental fire set off by lit candles inside the building. The Rabbi and Rebbitzen did not believe that was possible, and upon seeing littered pieces of Torah, prayer books and shawls that appeared intentionally destroyed, the police, CSI, and fire department returned and cordoned off the area as a probable crime scene. Besides some ripped remnants, the Torah is completely missing. The Rebbetzin says that the outpouring of support from community churches, synagogues, and citizens has been overwhelming and that while they hope to discover who and what was behind the fire, they are putting their focus on rebuilding the Chabad on Wheels.

Rabbi Katz originally began his Chabad several years ago using an RV called the “Mitzvah Mobile”, which he would drive to businesses, people’s homes, or park out by the pedestrian Lincoln Road to infuse a little Judaism in people’s lives. He used his RV, or Chabad on Wheels, to engage Miami Beach tourists and locals in putting on Tefillin and handing out holiday necessities such as Chanukah candles, maintaining the practice even upon founding the actual Chabad house. Rabbi Katz has touched the lives of hundreds of Jews worldwide, giving Miami tourists a temporary Jewish home and the Miami community a dedicated Shaliach to help add just a little more Yiddishkite into their lives.

I am completely shocked and saddened by this horrible event. Before moving to San Francisco in October, I had spent two years living a short walk from Chabad on Wheels in Miami Beach, and Rabbi Katz’s community was a large foundation of my Miami experience. I first went to Chabad for Yom Kippur services in October 2005 and was attracted to the humble sense of community and openness that I found. By January 2006, I was a regular at Shabbat services, which ranged from 15 people, just barely enough for a minyan on some evenings, to 70 – 80 for a big well-advertised Shabbat. I grew with Chabad, seeing the synagogue develop from only having Friday night services every other week to a full Friday and Saturday morning service offering.

A random assortment of recent transplants in their early 20s, along with occasional families, black hatters, non-religious senior citizens, and interested tourists made up the regular diverse mix of Chabad. Within the oddball assortment of Chabadniks, I made some of my best friends in the world, and in a place far from our own families; we became brothers and sisters to each other. Chabad on Wheels was a real community; we would all help out in the kitchen, preparing Shabbat lunches, decorate our synagogue together on holidays, have Shabbat dinner at our own homes and at the Rabbi’s home, celebrate birthdays together at Chabad, and talk to the Rabbi or the Rebbetzin about our every day life and challenges. Rabbi Katz put up the mezuzot in my apartment for me, guided my roommate and me in cleaning our house for Pesach, and just a year ago, I celebrated Pesach with Chabad. We had barbeques on Yom Tov, ate together in our Chabad sukkah and my close-knit Chabad “posse” of friends took road trips, went out on Saturday nights, and put on meals and parties together for every Jewish and secular occasion. My friends Joe and Ilana met a Chabad, announced their engagement on Shabbat, and we all went up to their Rabbi-Katz led wedding in New York. The posse Chabad girls again reunited in Israel this January for our friend Rachael’s wedding, and we held up a sign to make the bride laugh: “The posse formed at Chabad on Wheels.” These girls were the ones who inspired me to consistently push my spirituality and grow as a Jew, supported me in starting to keep kosher, and formed my Jewish home and family in Miami.

One of the most important days at Chabad was when we dedicated our Torah, which was a huge festivity symbolizing how important it was for our community to finally have its own sacred scroll. This Torah is now missing, with some parts desecrated by the fire. For someone who was intimately involve with Chabad on Wheels, what happened on April 22 causes real pain – that our synagogue was destroyed along with the objects most familiar and sacred to us.

Being 3,000 miles away now, I feel very removed from what is happening on the ground, and only through conversations with community members and the online images, can I try to understand. When I first saw the pictures, I had a horrible feeling in my stomach, like I was seeing destruction from Crystalnacht, and it is surreal to think that this is not 70 years ago in Germany – this is now and this is my synagogue. We do not know what happened and maybe never will, but this incident should serve as a reminder that we cannot take Judaism and our religious freedom for granted. I hope that Chabad on Wheels rebuilds with strength and dignity and continues its mission of making Judaism accessible and beautiful to the Miami community. I thank Rabbi Katz and the Chabad community for everything they do, and my heart is with them in this painful experience.

Please help to assist Chabad on Wheels in rebuilding:

You can send checks to:

Chabad Fire Fund Att Rabbi Zev Katz
PO Box 2591
Miami Beach, FL 33140

Or go to: http://www.chabadonwheels.com/ and click on the link to donate.

Torah scrolls evacuated as fire threatens Chabad of Malibu

A wildfire fueled by 50 mph Santa Ana winds and rising temperatures burned about 1,000 acres in the Malibu Hills area on Sunday, claiming several area businesses and landmarks, including Castle Kashan and Malibu Presbyterian Church, as well as threatening Pepperdine University.

Area homeowners were under mandatory evacuation, and Chabad of Malibu at 22933 Pacific Coast Highway removed its four Torah scrolls as shifting winds caused the fast-moving fire to crisscross a ridgeline above the synagogue in Sweetwater Canyon.

Fire officials put the start of the Canyon Fire started at 4:55 a.m., but several residents say they smelled smoke a few hours earlier. Three homes, the church and three business at Malibu Colony Shopping Center were destroyed, according to Los Angeles Fire Department officials.

Other areas reporting fires Sunday include Porter Ranch, Chatsworth, Santa Rosa Valley, Placerita Canyon, Castaic and Fontana. The National Weather Service has issued red-flag warnings for Los Angeles and Ventura counties until 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The fire in the canyon above Chabad of Malibu had yet to be contained as of Sunday afternoon. Strong winds destroyed a Chabad of Malibu sign, but no other harm had come to the synagogue or its adjacent kosher restaurant, recently renamed B.B.C. By the Sea (at left in photo.)

Rabbi Levi Cunin, spiritual leader of Chabad of Malibu, said he smelled smoke and called the fire department shortly after 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

"The first thing I did was get my wife and kids out," said Cunin, 36. "A lot of our people who come to Chabad -- many of them live in the area -- and they had to evacuate."

In addition to assisting congregants and neighbors, Cunin also ensured that Chabad of Malibu's four Torahs were safe; each was strapped into the backseat of his sedan.

"Living here in Malibu, knowing how quickly fires [can spread], it's better to be safe than sorry," he said. "We took out the Torah, the chumashim, the siddurs, we took them all out."

Just north of Pepperdine, the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue was abandoned save for a few residents watching the fire from the shul's parking lot.

Dawn Cunnion, who has lived at Malibu Country Estates for about 10 years, was evacuated at 6:30 a.m. Her home was visible from the parking lot.

"We're keeping an eye on it. We found a shady place ... where we could get out quickly. From this vantage point at least we've got a perspective as to what's going on," she said.

Cunnion said she's been through several fires, but this is her first mandatory evacuation.

"The one across the street ... was pretty scary too," she said, referring to a fire in January that destroyed four homes, including one that belonged to Suzanne Somers. "We had winds, but not these kinds of winds."

Residents have been evacuated to Zuma Beach and Agoura Hills High School.

As at Malibu Jewish Center was Michael Brown, 46, who found himself trapped in Malibu when MTA cancelled Line 534, which serves Pacific Coast Highway. The Los Angeles resident had spent the weekend at a campground across the street from the Reconstructionist congregation adjacent to the Pepperdine campus.

"They shut down the buses, and I needed some water ... so I seen the synagogue. I thought, well I'll get some water, charge up my laptop and be stranded at the beach," said Brown, who took shelter from the wind outside the locked sanctuary as he used an outlet for his computer.

About 15 miles north of Pepperdine at Camp JCA Shalom, religious educator Casey Krebs said there are no plans to evacuate.

"They said if we want, we could get things ready," she said. "We're just waiting and seeing what's happening. We smelled the smoke a lot last night, but we don't really smell it today."

Last Jew in Afghanistan marks Yom Kippur alone

Zebulon Simentov, the last Jew in Afghanistan, is once again marking the Jewish holy day of fasting in solitude, in a deserted synagogue in the capital of a devoutly Islamic nation.

"I have everything I need for the 24 hours of praying and fasting," Simentov tells AFP before the start of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, at sunset on Friday.

Around two decades ago, there were still about 20 Afghan Jewish families living in Kabul, although all were from Herat -- the largest city in northwestern Afghanistan near the border with Iran.

Through the Soviet occupation of the 1980s, the subsequent civil war and the Taliban's 1996-2001 regime, all went to Israel or moved to neighbouring former Soviet republics -- undoing a Jewish presence built up from the seventh century.

Only Simentov has been left behind, becoming by default the guardian of Kabul's empty synagogue.

The room where he receives visitors was once a prayer room for women. On the wall are pictures of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the late ultra-orthodox Lubavitch rabbi, Menahem Scheerson.

Adjoining this room is the bare-walled "small synagogue" for men, where he prefers to pray.

Simentov, approaching 50, dislikes the "big synagogue" across the corridor -- another large and dirty room in which stands only a platform traditionally reserved for the rabbi.

A cupboard built into the wall faces Jerusalem. Its doors are open and it has been stripped of its treasure, a scroll of the Torah.

The precious document was stolen by a Taliban during the rule of the Islamist movement which was driven from government six years ago by a coalition led by the United States.

The man "wanted to sell it, thinking it was valuable," Simentov says in Dari, one of the main languages in Afghanistan. He says he reads Hebrew perfectly but prefers not to speak it.

"Today that Taliban is jailed at Guantanamo Bay and I am waiting for him to be freed so I can ask him to return the Tables of the Law," says Simentov, who wears a Jewish cap called a kippa, but is otherwise dressed like an Afghan.

Simentov is alone. His wife and two children are in Israel, which he says he has not visited since 1998.

"I have been the only Jew in Afghanistan for two years," he says. Ishaq Levin, the synagogue's former guardian, died from illness two years ago aged around 80.

Simentov says it is not easy to practise his religion alone.

But he has obtained special permission from a rabbi in Tashkent, capital of neighbouring Uzbekistan and home to 15,000 Jews, to slaughter his own meat in the kosher way that can normally only be done by a special rabbi.

Otherwise this former carpet salesman appears perfectly integrated into Kabul, where he is well-known by people who live around the synagogue, and warmly greeted when he is outside.

Jews have lived in several regions of Afghanistan and legends abound about their presence.

One says the Pashtuns, one of the main ethnic groups in Afghanistan, descended from a tribe from Israel. Another says the name Afghanistan comes from Afghana, grandson of King Saul -- the first king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel.

Flooding Severely Damages Mineola Synagogue

(CBS) MINEOLA, N.Y. For nearly 20 years, Rabbi Anchelle Perl had been rebuilding the once struggling Beth Sholom Chabad Synagogue in Mineola. When Wednesday morning's storm rolled in, he watched the synagogue's offices, library, and social hall disappear under more than four feet of water. He tried desperately to save anything he could."By the time I got to the second level, I just saw it literally surging up and up and up. And I was literally running for my life upstairs," Perl tells CBS 2 HD. Everything down in the temple's basement was damaged beyond repair and must be replaced, including all the appliances in the kitchen and the entire floor in the ballroom.The cost to rebuild is estimated to be more than half a million dollars."It's very sad because I've spent so many years building lives and communities, and now I have to turn and rebuild myself," Perl says. Priceless religious books, letters, records and even the temple's Torah found floating in water will be buried in a formal ceremony. Still, it's the broken heart of Rabbi Perl, known as a generous contributor to his community, that has drawn members and non-members to the temple to help."The damage here is all going to be fixed. This isn't about the structure of the building or the Torahs or the scriptures. This is about giving back to Rabbi Perl and be supportive of him," said congregant David Lerman."I'm not a member here, but I felt the need and the obligation to help out and give back," said volunteer Barry Heffron. And under Perl's spiritual leadership, there's no doubt the synagogue will be even better than before."It's sad, but I'm gonna take it as a sign that we have to work harder and turn this tragedy into a triumph," Perl said.The second floor worship area was not damaged. Services will continue to be held there.

Torah scrolls confiscated from Ukrainian community

Vladimir Matveyev

KIEV — As their Torah scrolls were packed into black plastic garbage bags and carried out of the Jewish school, the students and adults continued to pray, many with tears in their eyes.

The scrolls originally belonged to the Jewish community of Zhitomir in central Ukraine, but were acquired by the local state archives through communist and Nazi looting.

Since then, in the absence of a restitution law, the archives had lent the scrolls to the community — but on shaky terms.

On February 14, the community was forced to return 10 scrolls it had received more than two years ago.

Representatives of the archives carried them out of the Ohr Avner Jewish Day School, leaving the community without any scrolls.

“This was like the medieval times, this was like a nightmare,” said Oleg Rostovtsev, a spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, the country’s leading Jewish umbrella group.

The seizure was the result of a controversy that was triggered a few months ago when the officials at the Zhitomir Regional State Archives demanded the return of the scrolls, citing concern over their safety.

In 2004, the archives handed over 17 out of 290 Torah scrolls in its possession to be used by the local Jewish community run by Chabad.

The scrolls had been the property of the many synagogues and private Jewish households in Zhitomir, and were confiscated by communist authorities during anti-religious campaigns or seized by the Nazis during the occupation of Ukraine in World War II.

For two-and-a-half years, the scrolls were kept in a specially designated room at the Ohr Avner school.

Without a restitution law, many Jewish communities in the post-Soviet Ukraine were allowed to temporarily use Torah scrolls confiscated by the Bolsheviks, while most of the scrolls remain the property of state-run museums and archives.

Such loans do not always satisfy the Jewish community.

The Zhitomir community had previously expressed its concern that in the absence of a proper restitution act, they could not repair the borrowed scrolls in accordance with Jewish law.

In addition, representatives of the community had to submit a petition every three months that would allow them to keep the scrolls.

In October, representatives of the archives checked the scrolls kept in the Zhitomir school and demanded their return, claiming that at least seven of the scrolls may have been damaged while in the community’s possession.

Archive Deputy Director Natalia Shimchenko said that the archive’s curators had established that the “number of units” registered with the archives “did not correspond with those in the community safe.”

Local Jewish leaders deny the accusations of improper care or alterations and said the scrolls — some of them fragmented — were improperly catalogued in the archives.

But the community chose not to argue, and last month returned the seven scrolls in question to the archives.

The archives then refused to prolong the loan agreement on the remaining 10 scrolls and confiscated them Wednesday despite protests from the Jewish community and the local governor.

“We are law-abiding citizens of Ukraine and we have not violated any laws,” community leader Vladimir Rozengurten said, adding that allegations of improper care and damage were “slander.”

“The statements that we have damaged the scrolls are outrageous,” Zhitomir Chief Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm said. “This is a groundless accusation, and we still have no results of the examination” of the scrolls.

But community leaders said they had to back off, apprehensive of possible use of force by representatives of the archives.

“I’m sure we are not saying goodbye for a long time to the Torah scrolls,” Rozengurten said.

He and other community leaders are hoping that legislation will be adopted in Ukraine dictating the return of the scrolls that were confiscated by the Bolsheviks and the Nazis.

JTA