New York – A damaged 19th century Torah scroll rescued from the Nazis is being restored at a New York City hospital.
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The Daily News says (http://nydn.us/1LvgLqJ ) the scroll is being carefully restored at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx for eventual use in services for its Jewish patients.
The scroll dates to 1880 and the restoration is part of a decades-long effort to repair nearly 1,600 sacred Torahs damaged after German forces seized artifacts from Jewish communities during World War II.
The scroll is being worked on by a rabbinical restoration team that is fixing creases, tears and holes. The team is also re-inking words and letters originally written with a quill feather. They’re trying to bring it up to “kosher” status.
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Information from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com
For less than half the price about $45000 they can purchase a beautiful new one.
With all respect to this effort, why would they spend over $100,000 on restoring an old sefer torah, even with its unique history, when there are hundreds of elderly jewish residents in the Bronx who can barely afford their medications?? What a waste of scarce resources.
Why is this being done in a hospital? Is this a new form of medicine they practice? Is it covered by Obama Care?
To numbers 1 and 2, they say $100k for fundraising purposes. Farshtein?
Sorry but that torah is way over 200 years old and the restoration price is also outrageous It shouldn’t cost more than $15,000 AT MOST.Is it because it will be paid by donations that it grew so much ? Two or three new torahs can be purchased with that much money. The sofer has a website where he can be seen in reform synagogues standing among women and helping them write letters in torahs.
there is a video of him throwing a torah into a freshly dug grave bare without even being placed in a plastic bag ,let alone a pottery container as dictated by jewish law.
We are working with the Sofer and to repair the Torah is not even close to that amount. The article was in reference to the fundraising aspects. The repairs are very affordable and looking forward to having a kosher Torah while also raising funds.
I have used Sofer On Site on many occasions and they have never failed me. They are not only trustworthy but they do a quality superb job and are a reasonable price. The Rabbi is someone I look up to and highly admire for all the good work he continuously does.
It is very interesting that these super orthodox sofrim work with reform congregations when the distance themselves from anything that smacks of reform .They will never davin or eat together .