Approximately 4,000 people Wednesday night welcomed a new Torah scroll contributed by Gush Katif expulsion victims and dedicated in memory of Kassam victim Ayala-Haya Abukasis. She was killed while protecting her brother during a rocket attack on Sderot.
The ceremony began at Kisufim, near the entrance to the destroyed communities of Gush Katif, and continued to Netivot and then to Sderot. The Torah scroll was placed in the Holy Ark at Mishkan Ayala, the synagogue in the B'nai Akiva center in memory of the Sderot girl. It is on loan to the center until the return of Jews to Gush Katif.
The Torah scroll's container depicts pictures of the synagogues that the government destroyed during the expulsion two summers ago.