On March 7th, the Beis Yisroel Torah Gemach Free Torah Loan Society dedicated a Torah to two police officers slain in the line of duty on January 21st. The ceremony took place in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood.
Detectives Jason Rivera Shield number 9006 and Wilbert Mora Shield number 9007 were honored with the Torah. The Torah also pays tribute to every New York City police officer who puts their life on the line every day to protect New Yorkers.
Bentzion Chanowitz, who manages the Gemach alongside Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky of Merkos Suite 302, believes it is important to express support and respect for the New York City Police Department.
We want the police to know that we respect them and that, in light of recent events, we support and honor them. This is why we thought it was fitting to include the names of the slain police officers on the Torah’s cover. Bentzion Chanowitz said that he wanted to remember them.
This Torah was restored and made Kosher so that it may once again be used in services.
Until a permanent solution is discovered, the Beis Yisroel Torah Gemach offers Torahs to Synagogues across the globe that need main use Torahs. We now have approximately 190 Torahs on long-term loan all throughout the globe.
The Gemach mostly deals with Chabad representatives who are just getting started. We’ve seen that delivering Torahs to new congregations encourages them to develop while also relieving burden on the Rabbis, allowing them to provide more services to their parishioners.
Additional Torahs have been dedicated by the Beis Yisroel Torah Gemach in memory of other police officers who have been slain, as well as First Responders and terror victims.
High-ranking officers from the NYPD, including Chief Michael M. Kemper, Inspector Richie Taylor, Lieutenant Ira Jablonsky, and members of the Brooklyn South Community Task Force, as well as Rabbis from the Flatbush area, were in attendance to honor and pray for the two officers, as well as to hope and pray that the killing would not happen again.
Rabbi Yehoshua Samuels of the Rockwood Park Jewish Center in Howard Beach, Queens, will deploy and utilize the Torah.
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