RSS 2.0 FeedSeptember 23, 2010, Bellmore Life
New family Torah marched through Bellmore
Rabbi Avraham Rabinowich of the Bellmore Jewish Center introduced a new Family Torah, written in Israel expressly for the congregation.
To view photos from this event click here.
Cheers of joy and happiness came from nearly 200 congregants of the Bellmore Jewish Center as they marched east down a closed-off Merrick Road from Newbridge Road last Sunday to the center, introducing the community to their new Family Torah.
Several years in the making, Joseph Weisbord, chairman of the committee to bring the new Torah to the center, told Bellmore Life, “It is a great day for the congregation.
The idea of a new Torah is to bring a new and heightened sense of community into the congregation.” He said that children who will Bar Mitzvah in the next 5-7 years have all signed the new torah, “so that they will feel as though they are a part of this living Torah, and it is part of them.”
Fourteen-year-old Kennedy student Brandon Schneider said he had signed the new Torah, calling the parade for the new Torah “a really awesome event.” Congregant Ben Schwartz called the new Family Torah a “monumental occasion” for the center. Fifty-year congregant E. Elaine Fried said of the new Torah, “It’s wonderful.”
Rose Levy, a vice-president of the center’s youth group, expressed gratitude for the Family Torah, saying it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Bellmore Jewish Center. She said it would bring the center’s community together in new ways because it is written specifically for the congregation.
County Legislator Dave Denenberg, who marched with the revelers, said the new Family Torah represented “continuity and the celebration of life,” and that bringing in the new torah at this time was very appropriate, as Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah had both just been celebrated. Congratulations to the Bellmore Jewish Center on its new guiding light.
