He survived Dachau concentration camp, emigrated to America, raised a family, and published his memoirs. And last Sunday Rabbi Yehuda Meir Gross beamed as he escorted a new Sefer Torah he commissioned down Bedford Avenue to the Veitzen shul in Williamsburg.

“It was a big success and a great achievement for my grandparents and for the family,” said Rabbi Gross’s grandson Yossi, a mortgage broker and landlord. (Yossi Gross has been in the news recently for offering to help nine families whose Patterson, N.J. homes were destroyed in a fire. Gross is the landlord of one of the three buildings.)

Born in Sz�raz Pet�k, Hungary, Rabbi Hershel Gross, his grandson said, was a student of the Pupa Rebbe, Rabbi Yaakov Chizkiah Greenwald, whose work, Vayaged Yaakov, he published. From 1970-1982, Rabbi Gross acted as principal of Bnos Yaakov, the Pupa girls school.

Last year, Yossi Gross said, a Sefer Torah procession passed by his grandparents� home, causing his grandmother to remark, �When will the day come when we will be able to do something like this?� Gross was present and helped his grandmother�s wish materialize.

Among the several-hundred participants marching down Bedford Avenue was NYPD Lieutenant Eltan Cohn, an Orthodox Jew, who was dressed in full uniform. Formerly a neighbor of Yossi Gross, Cohn wrote one of the remaining letters in the Sefer Torah.

Ever the policeman, Cohn commented, �It was well-organized from a police perspective� and then added, �From a Jewish perspective, it is always great to be part of the mitzvah of completing a Sefer Torah.�

(Article and photo reprinted from the Jewish Press)

[Photo caption: Yossi Gross looks on as NYPD Lieutenant Eltan Cohn writes a letter in the new Sefer Torah with the help of the scribe, Rabbi Avraham Markowitz.]