Christchurch Torahs Rescued From Beneath the Rubble
Clutching them like rescued babies, a non-Jewish police officer salvaged two Torah scrolls from the ruins of the Chabad-Lubavitch center in downtown Christchurch, providing a momentary relief to a Jewish community forced to mourn the additional loss of two Israeli backpackers.
Calling Det. Chris Bell no less than a hero, Chabad House co-director Rabbi Shmuel Friedman said that the officer literally risked life and limb for the sake of the scrolls.
“We didn’t come to him; he came to us,” related Friedman, who approached the city’s central business district with an Israeli backpacker on a mission to find someone to help them recover the scrolls. “He walked up to us, and asked for identification. And when we told him about our Torahs, he offered to take us there in the squad car.”
What they found resembled a war zone: Whole buildings toppled into piles of rubble on the street. Friedman didn’t recognize where they were. With several of its weight-bearing walls crumpled into its main hall, the Chabad House was “red-tagged,” forbidding entry to anyone but emergency personnel.
“When he heard of the importance of the Torah to Jews around the world,” recalled Freidman, “he put on his helmet and gloves, and went in himself.”
For the rabbi, who just a day before chanted a traditional mourner’s prayer as the recently-identified bodies of 22-year-old Israeli citizens Ofer Levy and Gabi Ingel were handed over by authorities for repatriation, the recovery of the scrolls was a welcome bit of good news.
“For me, it was extremely emotional,” said Friedman, who like many residents was left homeless in last week’s 6.3-magnitude earthquake. “It was such a beautiful scene when I saw the detective coming out from the Chabad House. It was like a fireman coming out of a burning building clutching a baby.”
Current casualty figures blame the quake for 155 deaths, including those of Levy, Ingel and 23-year-old Ofer Mizrachi, an Israeli whose body was identified on Sunday and flown home for burial. Reports, however, indicate the toll could rise; the Israeli Embassy warned that another of its citizens still remains unaccounted for.
Amidst such gloom, it’s amazing that anyone would risk further loss of life, stated a thankful Rabbi Mendel Goldstein, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of New Zealand.
“We are really overjoyed by this remarkable rescue by this heroic police officer,” said Goldstein. “He went into what is literally an extremely dangerous situation and pulled out the Torahs; it’s completely unbelievable.”
Goldstein pledged that life would continue for the city, its Jewish community, and the thousands of Israeli tourists who visit the region each year. Just a shell of the Chabad House remains, the result of several tons of roof crashing through the building, but already, plans are underway to open a temporary center on the outskirts of the central business district.
“While a number of local families have moved out of the city, many of those who’ve remained behind are extremely vulnerable and still in shock, and need all the help they can get in terms of comfort, support, and a lot of the practical things,” said Goldstein. “So we’ve arranged with other communities for food to be flown in from Auckland and Wellington and Australia. Moshe Naor, the B’nei Akiva representative in Auckland, has reached out to our community and is helping greatly with the relief effort.
“We’ll continue to serve the Jewish community,” he added, “and with G-d’s help, we’ll certainly rebuild the Chabad House.”
Sad
With all due respect, when will fellow Lubavitchers (and Shluchim heading the list) have Sefer Torah mantlen with kosher Luchos? Not the first picture of a Chabad House like this.
Appreciative
What a beautiful picture. Thank you.
Re #1
It is obvious that these mantelen are very old and the shliach got them used etc.
Since you are so concerned, call Rabbi Goldstein and give him your credit card number that he can order new ones with proper luchos!
Hmmmm.....
I gotta say, the juxtaposition of “Christchurch” and “Torah” is kinda weird.
Malka
Just curious…do the community there even prounounce the name of their city or what do they say?
amazing
wow i give him respect even goyim respect the torah
to # 5 and # 1
The community pronounce it CheChe – and it would be appropriate that #1 contributes a new Sefer Torah mantel since it seems to bother him so much!
Boruch Hashem for the pidyon shvuyim of the Sifrei Torah and our Tefillos are with the community and may this have been a Yerida Ltzorech Aliya !
Bring Moshiach
There is a new web site set up the help the shluchim rebuildchabadnz.com please use it and tell others to do the same.
luck officer Has zechus
his zchus is great
Milhouse
The local community certainly does NOT pronounce it “CheChe”. They pronounce it “Christchurch” just like everyone else. But the local shul (not the Chabad House) is called Canterbury Hebrew Congregation, because calling it Christchurch Hebrew Congregation would sound too weird. The local legend is that it used to be called that, until one rabbi it hired wrote back to his family about his new job, and they sat shiva for him! That’s when the shul changed its name. (Canterbury is the region surrounding Christchurch.)
There is no real halachic problem in saying the city’s name, because it’s not directly named after an avoda zara. The city is named after Christ Church College, which was in turn named after a church in Oxford, which was in turn named after the avoda zara. Thus, in pronouncing the city’s name one is not referring to avoda zara but to a college, which is perfectly OK. Similarly, in pronouncing the college’s name one is referring to a building. But pronouncing that building’s name could be a problem.