Chabad of Bonita Springs, Estero & FGCU dedicated a Torah scroll Sunday which honors the six million victims of the Nazi regime.
The event at the Chabad, 24611 S Tamiami Trail, Bonita Springs, also commemorated the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack and its victims and heroes.
A Torah is a 304,000-letter, handwritten scroll written on parchment by a trained scribe and is the holiest book within Judaism, made up of the five books of Moses. This particular scroll was written in Hungary in the 1940s as the horrors of the Holocaust were unfolding.
It was hidden during World War II and later rescued.
It has been meticulously restored by a group of trained scribes and will be finalized by a scribe in Bonita Springs.
During the ceremony, after the final letters are re-written to complete the entire scroll, the Torah will be lifted, followed by a brief parade carrying the Torah under a wedding canopy with live music and dancing.
The Torah will be "greeted" by the "resident" Torah scrolls housed at the Chabad.
The event demonstrates Jewish pride, courage strength and tenacity and is a testament to Jewish survival and flourishing despite the persecution of the past as well as current antisemitism.
Many community members also see it as a way to stand with the Jewish community.
For more information about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, visit www.JewishBonita.com/HighHolidays. To find High Holiday services in hundreds of cities throughout the world, visit www.JewishBonita.com/HighHolidayServices.
Special, related Holocaust event premieres at 8 p.m., Sept. 18, 19 and 20 on WGCU TV: Watch "The U.S. and the Holocaust," a three-part, six-hour PBS series that tells the story of how the American people grappled with one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century, and how this struggle tested the ideals of our democracy.
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