Oct. 7 Victims Honored with New Jersey Town’s First Torah
by Rena Vegh – chabad.org
On Sept. 17, Galit Hasidim, a mother of four from the Israeli coastal town of Ashdod, sat near a sofer, a ritual scribe, as he inscribed two letters in a new Torah scroll. Together with her 18-year-old son, Eliya, she dedicated these letters to the memory of her eldest son Naor and his girlfriend Sivan, who were killed on Oct. 7 in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. The final destination of this Torah scroll: Mendham, a small New Jersey township an hour outside New York City, with a population of less than 6,000.
Galit described why she chose to dedicate letters in her son’s memory. “We must increase our good deeds and do more to spread Torah. We need to continue to be happy; that’s our victory. And that’s what Naor and Sivan would’ve wanted.”
The families of Oct. 7 victims Ilay Gamzo, a 20-year-old staff sergeant in the Israel Defense Forces, 18-year-old Shani Amin and 25-year-old Nir Popov also participated by dedicating letters in their loved-ones’ memories.
The families were invited to join in the writing of the Torah by Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Center of Mendham and Chester, who along with Rabbi Menachem Kutner, director of Chabad Youth Organization of Israel’s Terror Victims Project, felt it would bring joy to the families to be part of this initiative.
“This Torah will bring honor to the memory of the victims of Oct. 7,” said Rabbi Ari Herson, director of the Chabad Jewish Center of Mendham and Chester. “Just as a Torah scroll is not considered kosher if even one letter is missing, the Jewish people are incomplete if even one person is missing.”
A Torah of their own marks a first for the Jews of Mendham, and was conceived as a way to bring Jewish pride and unity to this nascent Jewish community.
‘We’re Coming to You’
Herson grew up in nearby Basking Ridge, where his parents co-direct Chabad of Greater Somerset County. After he married his wife, Sarah, who hails from Los Angeles, in 2022, they knew they wanted to find an area where they could make a difference.
Mendham seemed the perfect place. While there are many synagogues and Jewish centers in nearby cities and towns, there was, until that point, no Jewish infrastructure in Mendham. The couple started commuting between their home in Brooklyn, N.Y., to meet with Jews living in the township for coffee and to do a mitzvah like tefillin.
As Herson puts it, “we’re not waiting for you to come to us, we’re coming to you. … Here’s a challah. If this is bringing back Jewish memories because your grandma once made it for you; we have one for you.”
The Hersons led their first community event for Mendham and nearby Chester just before last Rosh Hashanah, in an area public park. They expected an attendance of five to ten people and were pleasantly surprised when an excess of 40 men, women and children showed up. When the brutal attack on Israel took place on Oct. 7, Sarah Herson organized an event to show support and solidarity with the people of Israel within 24 hours.
This gathering was the first in a series of events that signaled it was time to move forward with launching a Chabad center in Mendham. After a public menorah-lighting event during Chanukah that attracted around 70 people, the Hersons decided to take the plunge and relocate to the township.
Area Jews have responded warmly to Chabad’s steady invitations to join in Jewish events—like a Purim party, community Passover Seder and women’s pottery nights. Some families began showing up consistently, even helping to plan or coordinate future events as they became more invested in the Jewish programming they now had access to.
‘I’ll Take Care of It’
On a routine Friday morning for Herson, driving around Mendham to deliver freshly baked challahs for Shabbat, he knocked on the door of David Goldenberg, a renowned scientist, inventor and author with a distinguished career in medical research. Goldenberg grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, back then an Orthodox but not necessarily Chassidic neighborhood. He then attended the University of Chicago and spent some time studying in Europe, including eight years in Germany obtaining a doctorate of medicine and science in a university outside of Nuremberg.
The rabbi and scientist talked at length about all things Jewish, and the conversation was only cut short when Herson had to rush home to prepare for Shabbat. Before he left, Goldenberg handed him a copy of The Rav of Fürth, a biography of rabbi Dovid Kahana Spiro, the last remaining survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, with whom Goldenberg had formed a close relationship during his time as a medical student in Germany.
From that point on, the pair’s relationship blossomed. David and his wife became regulars at Chabad’s events, showing up with presents to Chanukah parties for the children and forging connections with the community.
For Goldenberg, what the Hersons’ offer is deeply personal. “I feel good working with Chabad because it’s very similar conceptually to [the traditional Jewish life] my mother was attached to in Williamsburg,” he said, noting that she was familiar with Lubavitch because she hailed from the area where the movement was born in Belarus.
This past June, during the holiday of Shavuot—a holiday which celebrates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Sinai—the Hersons held Mendham’s first Shavuot celebration. As a new Jewish center in a small community, Chabad did not own a Torah of its own, and, as is fairly common, borrowed one.
Unbeknown to the Hersons, Goldenberg had been thinking that a Torah was just what the community needed.
Rabbi Herson recalled Goldenberg’s nonchalant yet firm, “I’ll take care of it,” but didn’t immediately understand what was being offered.
“‘Well, if you don’t object, I’ll buy you one,’” Goldenberg recalled telling the rabbi. “He didn’t believe it, but I told him, ‘You find out what it costs, and I’ll write you a check.’ ” From there, things picked up speed, and soon a sofer in Israel was writing a Torah scroll destined for Mendham.
To honor Goldenberg’s special connection to Fürth, as a final touch Rabbi Herson was able to track down a beautiful pair of 300-year-old Torah finials (rimonim) originating in Fürth.
Now, these rimonim will grace Mendham’s special new Torah.
‘The Lifeblood of the Jewish People’
The hachnasat sefer Torah—the Torah-dedication ceremony—will be held on Oct. 7, on the one-year anniversary of the biggest massacre on Jews since the Holocaust. The Torah is dedicated to the memories of those who were murdered on Oct. 7 as a way to pay tribute to and commemorate those lives lost.
Sarah Herson says they hope to welcome 100 people at the ceremony, but aren’t too worried about the number.
“We’re trying to balance the joy of dedicating a Torah with the sadness of memorializing those who perished on Oct. 7,” she said. “It’s a really fine line, and we hope to do it in a way that honors the memory of the victims, as well as the joy and strength of receiving a Torah, the lifeblood and foundation of the Jewish people. Having the families of those affected join us in writing the Torah goes a long way to achieving this.”
Additionally, Goldenberg had his son Marc in mind when donating the Torah scroll. Marc, diagnosed with dyslexia as a child, flourished at a specialized school in Massachusetts, even joining the debate team. Tragically, just as he expressed interest in joining a physician at a university to further his studies, he died in a car accident at age 16.
When the sofer in Israel had nearly completed the Torah, and the families of victims of Oct. 7 had joined in the inscription of their letters, the scroll was sent to the U.S. The last stop on the Torah’s journey to Mendham and Chester was in Plainview, Long Island, where Ronen and Orna Neutra, parents of 22-year-old Omer Neutra—an American who is currently being held hostage in Gaza—joined the sofer as he inscribed a word of great significance: chazakah, the Hebrew word for “strength.”
“This powerful act symbolizes not only their prayer for Omer’s safe return but also embodies the resilience of the Jewish spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity,” said Rabbi Herson. “May the word ‘chazakah’ radiate its power to Omer and all those in captivity.”
