Crown Heights, NY – Thousands Celebrate For Newly Completed Mumbai Torah [photos-video]

Crown Heights, NY – Under a chilly, night sky, colleagues of slain emissaries to Mumbai–Rabbi Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg–danced last night intensely with a newly completed Torah. Leading the way under the canopy were leaders of Chabad-Lubavitch and the fathers of Gabi and Rivky, who moments earlier inscribed the final letters in the Torah for their children.

“I am certain,” said Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg, Rivky’s father who arrived from Israel for the event, “that Gabi and Rivky are joining us in this celebration.”

After the last letters were written and the ink dried, the completed scroll was carried aloft on an illuminated float to Lubavitch Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway. Grief and sadness were defiantly redirected to purposeful joy as the dancing crowd wound its way down the boulevard. Numbers swelled with thousands of local community residents joining in the celebration.

The Torah scroll will be donated to the Chabad House in Mumbai, India.

Launched shortly after the massacre, the Torah was the collective effort of Chabad Shluchim and their communities worldwide. Its completion ceremony Thursday night was scheduled during the annual International Conference of Chabad Shluchim, November 11-15. Since arriving to Brooklyn for the Conference, thousands of Shluchim from communities around the world inscribed their own letter in the Torah, making it truly representative of the worldwide Jewish community.

“By the family of Chabad representatives, spread across more then 70 countries around the world, working together to sponsor this Scroll,” said Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos, “we are in effect uniting Jewish communities from all four corners of the Earth.”

The Torah was dedicated in honor of Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg, and four other guests killed in the Chabad House: Bentzion Kruman, Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, Yoheved Orpaz and Norma Shvarzblat Rabinovich

Exclusive photos to VIN News by TheCoolJew.com