A joyous dedication celebration of a new Torah scroll was held in Kiryat Netafim in central Samaria on Sunday. The Torah scroll was donated to the Nofei Hadar synagogue by the Abraham family from Toronto as a gift in memory of Israel activist Izzy Kaplan who passed away this past March. Present at the celebration were Izzy’s widow Susie, as well as their children and grandchildren.
The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel praised the late Kaplan for having "worked tirelessly for the People and Land of Israel... His death deals a hard blow to lovers of the Land of Israel and those fighting to protect its holiness."
Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika thanked the guests for their support of the community and strengthening the connection between the people who settle the land and the Torah.
David Ha'Ivri of the Shomron Liaison Office, who made the connection between the family and the Shomron community, told the participants that this "opportunity to honor the memory of Izzy Kaplan at Kiryat Netafim is a great honor for the community... The Torah scroll in his honor will be an inspiration for us to continue building and developing the Shomron."
Kiryat Netafim was founded in 1984 as part of the link between Ariel in central Shomron and the Petach Tikva-Rosh HaAyin bloc in central Israel. It now boasts some 140 families, and a new neighborhood in eastern Kiryat Netafim is close to completion. Rabbi Netanel Oved has been the town’s rabbi since 2008.
A lawsuit filed by Peace Now against the town claimed that construction was taking place on privately-owned Arab land. The Supreme Court threw out the case, and work on 14 new homes is expected to being in late September, when the construction freeze in Judea and Samaria expires.