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(JNS) – Some 5,000 people marched several blocks on Park Avenue through Manhattan’s Upper East Side on Monday evening, in what organizers say is the city’s largest-ever Torah dedication, which honored the victims of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel.
Yair Klyman, an event organizer, told JNS that young Jewish professionals on the Upper East Side commissioned the Torah scroll to promote “resilience” and “unity,” as they commemorated the one-year anniversary of the terror attacks.
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Torah mantles often bear the names of donors, who funded the costly sacred text, but this Torah cover bears the names of the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, symbolizing the legacies of those murdered and held hostage, according to Klyman.
“Oct. 7 was a life-changing moment for the Jewish community,” he told JNS. “We wanted to dedicate a Torah that could be passed on from generation to generation, so we never forget all those we lost on that day.”
He added that every victim of the attack, Jew and non-Jew, is inscribed on the inside of the Torah mantle. “Their legacy will forever continue through its presence,” he said.
Yosef Wilhelm, a rabbi and co-director of Chabad Young Professionals Upper East Side, told JNS that dedicating a Torah is the most “fitting” method to commemorate Oct. 7 victims, because the long-standing Jewish practice is “spiritually significant.”
“We believe that, because every Jew is connected to a letter in the Torah,” he said. “When you write a Torah scroll in someone’s honor, you elevate their soul.”
The event allowed the community to move forward from the tragedy with purpose, according to Wilhelm.
“Dedicating a Torah scroll requires celebration, and although we mourn those we lost, we gather tonight to celebrate the strength of the Jewish people,” he told JNS. “We have to dance and celebrate specifically for those who no longer can.”
Jonathan Sarna, university professor and professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, and director of its Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, told JNS that Torah dedications are common synagogue practices, but they are not usually attended by outside congregation members.
Whether Monday night’s dedication was the largest in history is “trivial” compared to the deeper message about Jewish belonging, according to Sarna.
“This event was about a community making a statement about Jewish presence in New York in the face of rising antisemitism,” he said. “People who were not deeply connected to the congregation attended in order to visibly display their Jewish identity and tell the wider public they are not going anywhere.”
Broken hearts celebrating
Chaim Steinmetz, the senior rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, an Orthodox congregation on the Upper East Side, told the crowd that it was important for the Manhattan Jewish community to gather in celebration despite the “mournful” nature of the anniversary.
“Tonight with broken hearts, we are going to celebrate this Torah dedication in order to show the world that even in the darkest times, we still have hope,” he said.
An estimated 5,000 people gathered on Manhattan’s Upper East Side on Oct. 7, 2024 to celebrate a new Torah scroll dedicated in honor of the victims of Hamas’s terror attack the prior year. Photo by Vita Fellig.
Kehilath Jeshurun, Jewish National Fund-USA, the Israeli-American Council and Olami were among those who helped organize the event.
Shira Bratt, of Brooklyn, told JNS that she attended the event to “connect” with the New York Jewish community and support the return of the hostages.
“I felt it was important to mark this anniversary together with my community, because we are beginning a new chapter,” she said. “We have to simultaneously commemorate and honor those who were killed during the atrocities of Oct. 7, while still remembering to fight for the hostages, who can still return home.”
Yoni Skariszewski, whose father was murdered in the Oct. 7 attack and who helped rescue 130 people from the Nova party, told the audience that he was so “honored” to be part of the Torah dedication that he sought special permission to leave his reserve duty in Israel to fly to New York.
“There was nothing I could do to save my father’s life,” he lamented. “But celebrating this Torah dedication tonight is proof that though one year ago the Jewish people were at their lowest point since the Holocaust, we are now stronger than ever.”
Ronen Neutra, whose son Omer, a dual American-Israeli citizen, is a hostage in Gaza, told attendees that it was a “special moment” for his family to celebrate the dedication of a Torah written in honor of his son. The honor inspires him and his family to continue to advocate for Omer’s release, he said.
“The community gathered here really picks us up,” he said. “We know you care, and we know you fight with us.”
“The only way to bring back the resilience of the people in Israel is to bring back our hostages,” he added.
