Tania Valdemoro - Miami Herald

Rabbi Zev Katz searches through what remains inside the burned Chabad Chul in Miami Beach last month. Photo - Cheryl A. Guerrero

MIAMI BEACH, FL — A Broward County woman who wants to honor her dead parents, and a couple who commute between Miami and New York, are donating new Torahs to a beleaguered Jewish congregation in Miami Beach whose synagogue was ravaged in a recent fire.

Donors Helping Synagogue Replace Torah Lost in Blaze

Tania Valdemoro – Miami Herald

Rabbi Zev Katz searches through what remains inside the burned Chabad Chul in Miami Beach last month. Photo – Cheryl A. Guerrero

MIAMI BEACH, FL — A Broward County woman who wants to honor her dead parents, and a couple who commute between Miami and New York, are donating new Torahs to a beleaguered Jewish congregation in Miami Beach whose synagogue was ravaged in a recent fire.

”These show people that we’re going to come back stronger after a tragedy,” said an appreciative Rabbi Zev Katz, the head of Miami Beach’s Chabad Shul, part of Judaism’s Orthodox Hasidic movement.

Miami Beach police and fire officials and the FBI are investigating the blaze, which gutted the synagogue at 2401 Pine Tree Dr. on April 22. Katz said members of the congregation suspect it was arson, but officials have not yet classified a cause.

Mysteriously never found in the ashes: the shul’s Torah, a sacred parchment scroll that contains the first five books of the Old Testament — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is unrolled and sections are read out loud during religious services.

Facing replacement costs of $20,000 to $40,000, Katz started a fundraising campaign to pay for a new Torah that is being handwritten by Rabbi Yochanon Klein, a 27-year-old sopher, or scribe, in Brooklyn.

But, thanks to the generosity of the anonymous donors, the congregation won’t have to wait up to a year for Klein to finish the painstaking job.

The Jewish woman from Broward County said she was moved to action after she learned about the fire from news reports. She says she is not religious and does not belong to a synagogue. She requested anonymity because she fears for her safety if her name is publicized.

”I don’t like that somebody burned down the temple,” she said. “I got in touch with another rabbi, who contacted Rabbi Katz, and then I told him what I wanted to do.”

Her Torah will be purchased ready-made from a store in New York. The final eight or nine lines will be inscribed during a dedication at noon June 15 at the Chabad Shul’s temporary new home at The Palm Court, 309 23rd St.

The Broward donor also is providing 600 prayer books to the congregation after hearing there was a ”desperate” need for them. Several prayer books burned during the fire.

She said her gifts will enable her to honor her parents and sister, who all died in the past six years.

”I’ve never done anything like this before,” she said. “But a Torah is opened all the time and it lasts for generations. It’s a way to remember my parents, who were very good people.”

The second Torah the community will receive comes from a couple who divide their time between Miami and New York. Katz said he is discussing with them whether to buy a ready-made Torah or commission another scribe to make it. Katz said the couple asked not to be named.

Marc Hurwitz, a member of the Chabad Shul, learned about the donations from an e-mail Katz sent to the congregation.

”I think it’s poignant that we’re having the new Torah dedicated a week after the holiday [in which] Jews celebrate God giving Moses the Ten Commandments,” he said, referring to Shavuot on June 9-10.

“The outpouring of support has been overwhelming.”

One Comment

  • c.s.

    Kol Hakavod to this couplle and single!
    im glad that thins are working out for them all.
    Remember!its all in hashems hands.