Daily Archives: February 17, 2006

Wellesley-Weston Chabad’s Torah scroll completed

The U.S. Postal Service has a building in New York City, inscribed with the motto “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Well, on Sunday Feb. 12, a massive blizzard kept just about everyone indoors. Many local events were canceled, and hundreds of flights were canceled in Boston, leaving thousands of stranded travelers.

But, in Wellesley, more than 100 friends and community members gathered in the midst of the storm for ahistorical event – the completion of a Torah scroll.

Written by hand, using a quill and special ink on dozens of sheets of hand-prepared animal parchment, all sewn together to form a long scroll, Jews believe that a Torah is a living embodiment of the Divine Will.

Holocaust survivor, 76, finally gets his bar mitzvah

It may have taken 63 years but Herman Rosenblat is finally able to celebrate being a man.

Rosenblat, formerly of Bay Terrace, received his Bar Mitzvah today at Congregation Beth Sholom Chabad in Mineola. Although most Jewish boys celebrate at age 13 — the age when the child becomes responsible for himself under Jewish law — Rosenblat was hardly in a position for balloons and streamers: the 76-year-old Polish immigrant spent his 13th year in a concentration camp during World War II.

Rosenblat celebrated with about a dozen friends and local congregants, eating cookies and dancing the Hora. But his journey from near death in a German concentration camp to celebrating his life in a Mineola temple is just one of Rosenblat’s amazing tales.

Chabad leader pleads guilty, gets fine

Rabbi admits to wrongful use of his property; other charges by town dropped

Rabbi Avraham Bechor, who operated the Chabad Center of Randolph out of his West Hanover Avenue home, pleaded guilty Wednesday night in municipal court to deviating from the originally approved use of the property. The charge was based on his running a religious school in the house. Bechor was fined $250 and costs, and three other related charges against him were dropped by the township.

The cleric also pleaded not guilty to another charge related to safety regulations under the township construction codes. That charge will be heard in township court at a later date.

The school originally run in the house now is based at the Mount Freedom Jewish Center.