Reply To: Where have all the Shtarkers gone?

Abba_S

The yungerleit in the video clips look anemic. Here in the country, where homeowners take out trash, mow lawns, shovel snow it is not such a problem. The biggest problem with the tall, heavy sifrei Torah in our shul is that many are more than 100 years old, are on loan from families who brought them from Europe and the current generations don’t want to fund upkeep (checking and repairs by a sofer) so we have 8 that are only used for dancing on Simchat Torah. We have 4 that are on loan from families who were wise enough to establish endowment funds to pay the upkeep expenses.

If we donate a Sefer Torah (and have done so in the 1980s when my grandparents were niftar) we establish a trust fund to cover future expenses. After all what good is it for a shul or school/yeshiva to have the burden of maintaining a kosher Torah?

When I was president of the shul we established a rule that we did not accept donations of things that require checking, maintenance, etc without an accompanying cash donation for that purpose.