New Torah Welcomed to Town

DENVER, CO — The purple-and-gold package on the Denver-bound flight from Jerusalem wasn’t a typical piece of carry-on luggage.

Its arrival Tuesday at Denver International Airport was greeted with singing, dancing and “Welcome Home Torah” signs held by members of Chabad House, a Jewish synagogue and educational center.

The fanfare was the culmination of the two-year-long “Six Million Penny Project” Chabad House launched to raise $60,000 to purchase a new Torah. The synagogue has reached about 80 percent of its goal.

“The Torah scroll is the holiest article that the Jewish people have,” said Rabbi Yisroel Engel, who led the festivities in front of the Webb fountain at DIA. “We use it regularly in the synagogue, so the fact it just arrived is a time to celebrate.”

A Torah, the first five books of the Bible written in Hebrew, costs between $30,000 and $50,000 to copy. A certified “scribe” paints each letter by hand with a turkey quill onto a piece of prepared cowhide. The process takes about a year.

The new Torah was dedicated by Chabad House to the 6 million Jewish Holocaust victims.

“The best way to remember our past is to celebrate the future and be proud of our future,” Engel said. “It has an added layer of significance and meaning, so we decided to come to the airport to greet it the moment it gets off the plane. It’s an expression of how we feel.”

Engel said the edges of the Torah will be sewn to two wooden handles and the final few letters will be painted by the synagogue’s scribe, Rabbi Moshe Fyzakov, who traveled with the scroll from Jerusalem.

“I came to accept the Torah and see the ceremony,” said Ab Aharonian, 34, who was among the crowd of about 50 people at DIA for the celebration.

Mark Makowitz, 50, attended the ceremony with his two children. He’s the son of two Holocaust survivors. His father was in Poland’s Warsaw Ghetto, and his mother lived in hiding with a Christian family.

“As a child of a survivor, this is about remembering those who perished,” Makowitz said. “This Torah represents a piece of my personal heritage, so it’s an emotional thing for me – and hopefully for my children as well. It is a continuity of their souls and memories.”