|
|
April 30, 2004/Iyar 9 5764, Vol. 56, No. 32
Fountain Hills synagogue receives Torah
LEISAH NAMM
Managing Editor
On the far-east side of the Valley, members of Fountain Hills' only synagogue celebrated the arrival of their new Torah on April 25.
More than 100 people gathered at the Fountain Hills Community Center to welcome the new Torah to Congregation Beth Hagivot, which arrived almost a year after the congregation held its first Shabbat service.
Members Martin and Terry Brown, Fountain Hills resi-dents for 21 years, donated the Torah in memory of Martin's parents, Sarah and Louis Brown, and the bima cover in memory of Terry's parents, Sari and Ernest Emas.
Terry Brown said she and her husband, who co-founded the Jewish social group Shalom of Fountain Hills 20 years ago, are pleased "to see the growth of the Jewish population and the fulfill-ment of this dream" of a syn-agogue in the suburban community.
The Torah came from Shaare Shamayim, a Phil-adelphia synagogue that Beth Hagivot member Don Klein, chairman of the Torah dedication com-mittee, was affiliated with before he moved to Arizona five years ago.
The ceremony began with participants marching with three Torahs outside the community center, followed by an afternoon service and presentation. One Torah was loaned to Beth Hagivot last summer by Temple Beth Israel and a third, a Torah rescued from the Holocaust, was borrowed for the ceremony from the Jewish Committee of Scouting.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, ministers from local churches, town council member John Cavenaugh and Vice Mayor Rick Melendez joined in Beth Hagivot's celebration.
The fact that the 120-member congregation now has its own Torah means that it's now a "real congregation (that has arrived) at what we thought was a dream," said Fred Widom, synagogue president.
The only remaining relic from a German synagogue destroyed during Kristallnacht also found a new home at the Fountain Hills synagogue.
Member Harry Somers, a Holocaust survivor from Germany, and his wife Dorothy donated the chain for the Torah. His father had given him this chain - found in the rubble of his synagogue in Zweibrucken, Germany - before Somers boarded a children's transport out of Germany during World War II. The Somers also purchased a yad for the new Torah.
Cantor Howard Tabaknek, cantor of Temple Beth Israel from 1993-2000, leads Friday night Shabbat services twice a month for the congregation. Approximately 35-50 people attend each service, said Widom.
The next two Shabbat services are 7 p.m. tonight (Friday, April 30) and Friday, May 14, at the Fountain Hills Community Center, 13001 N. La Montana Drive.
Call 480-837-7926.
Contact the writer at leisah_namm@jewishaz.com.
|
