A Torah scroll saved from the ashes of the Holocaust has been placed in a new synagogue in Itamar, in memory of the five members of the Fogel family who were murdered there earlier this year.
After the massacre, Jack Ross from New York connected with the community through Americans for a Safe Israel and offered to donate a Torah scroll that been rescued from Poland during the Shoah. He had the Torah repaired by a scribe and made kosher after 70 years of not being used and then donated it to a synogogue in Itamar in memory of the Fogel family.
Hundreds of residents took part in the Torah welcoming ceremony Tuesday, writing the last letters of the Torah, as is the custom, and taking the Torah – in a dancing procession – to its new home on a hilltop neighborhood in Itamar.
The building of the synagogue was made possible through grants provided by the Israel Independence Fund.
At the ceremony, Shomron Regional Authority head Gershon Mesika compared the Torah, which is the heart of the Jewish people, to Itamar, which he said is the heart of the Land of Israel on the map.
Mesika thanked the donor Jack Ross and the directors of AFSI and the Israel Independence Fund for their ongoing relationship and support for the communities of the Shomron.
Photos by Heather Meyers for Samaria Regional Council