Mizrachi Canada undertook a major endeavor to donate 70 Sifrei Torah to Shuls in IDF bases around the country. The donation is being made in memory of fallen soldiers of the IDF and the target number of 70 Torahs was chosen in Honor of Israel’s 70th anniversary year as part of the Oz Vehadar Torah Donation Project.

The Torahs were extra Sifrei Torah that had been present in various Canadian communities and will now see use in IDF bases that lack enough Torahs for the number of soldiers who need them.

Two of the donor families, the Nathanson and Kanterovitz families, who donated a Torah that will now be used at the Shul in the naval officers’ base in Akko, had a meeting with  Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan from Bayit Yehudi, who serves as the Deputy Defense Minister earlier this week in his Tel Aviv office.

Following the meeting, Ben Dahan said: “It is very exciting to see this contribution of Diaspora Jewry to the memory of the fallen soldiers of the IDF. It is a great privilege that these Torah scrolls will be used in places where soldiers who gave their lives for the people of Israel lived.”

“I congratulate the Nathanson and Kanterovitz families who donated the scroll, and hope that we will be able to continue bringing more Torah scrolls to the land of Israel and place them in synagogues throughout the country,” Ben Dahan added.

Organizer of the Oz Vehadar Torah project, Uri Dopelt, said: “As part of the project, we connect between communities abroad that donate unused Torah scrolls, private individuals who wish to dedicate Torah scrolls in memory of their loved ones, and communities, IDF bases or memorial projects in Israel that need Torah scrolls. The scrolls that are no longer in use are corrected and made ‘kosher’ again and are revived by returning them to use, thus providing hope and memory to the families of the fallen or terror victims throughout the country.”

So far, the project has put to use more than 100 Torahs that were unused in various Diaspora communities.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)