Hidden
Russian Torahs Find New Home in Brooklyn
- The
Jewish Press
Friday, November 12, 2004
Click here to see
a photo gallery of the event
 Two
Torah scrolls, kept hidden through the years of Communist
rule in Russia, will be restored to use and to a new home.
On Sunday, October 24, a gala procession escorted the
precious Torah scrolls through the Russian community of
Brighton Beach to the Hebrew Alliance F.RE.E. (Friends
of Refugees of Eastern Europe} Synagogue at 2915 Brighton
6 Street- F.R.E.E. is America's largest religious organization
devoted to aiding Russian Jews, is located at 2915 Brighton
6th St. For more information, contact the synagogue, at
(718) 648-1820.
Welcoming aTorah scroll is always celebrated in the
manner of a wedding, giving honor to the Torah as to a
bride. The Torah was accompanied with torches, song, dancing,
banners and live music.
The smaller of the two Torah scrolls, about 150 years
old, was donated by the Dovidov family in honor of their
father, Abraham Dovidov, the sexton of a synagogue in
Riga. When the Nazis invaded, he fled to Russia with the
Torah scroll, taking it out only for prayer services on
the Shabbat and then hiding it.
After the war, he returned to Latvia which remained
under Soviet domination. He continued his practice of
taking out the Torah scroll only for Shabbat services,
and hiding it during the week. When he passed away, his
children brought the Torah with them to the United States.
The Schuster family donated the larger scroll, which
traveled a similarly dangerous path through post Holocaust
Europe before arriving here.
Rabbi Hershel Okunov, Vice President of F.R.E.E, reports
that over $10,000 was raised to repair the scrolls. Every
letter on the handwritten parchment has to be perfect
in order to be used in the synagogue.
photo caption:Rabbi Hershel Oknnov and Rabbi Moshe Wiener
dance with newly restored Sifrei Torah that were hidden
for decades in the Soviet Union.
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