A Torah scroll that will soon head to a growing Reform community in Israel stopped in Toronto last week, as part of a 20-city tour across North America.
The Torateinu ARZA is on its way to Sha’ar HaNegev, a community in Israel with a new synagogue but no permanent Torah.
The scroll is connecting different Jewish communities across North America, and encouraging them to do something active and supportive for their Reform brethren in Israel, said Les Rothschild, president of ARZA Canada, the Association of Reform Zionists of America.
“We’re doing this to support the ideals that the Reform movement has with Israel,” said Rothschild. “Zionism for Reform Jews, in many cases, [means a] state that is pluralistic, that is egalitarian, that treats all citizens equally.”
The Torateinu ARZA has been moving among Reform communities in cities across the United States since February, ahead of its flight to Israel at the end of June for Rosh Chodesh Tammuz.
The project started with the Beth Israel congregation in San Diego, Calif., which is a regional partner with Sha’ar HaNegev. Through its journey, the Torah has stopped in more than a dozen cities, including San Francisco, Seattle, New York and Boston. Toronto was the scroll’s only Canadian stop.
While in Toronto, Grade 2 students at both Leo Baeck Day School campuses did a hakafah with the scroll during their Torah ceremony. On Shabbat, members of Temple Sinai and City Shul congregations read from the Torah.
“We’re recognizing that a Torah isn’t something that sits in a museum or is sort of like an artifact,” said Rabbi Stephen Wise, the leader of Shaarei-Beth El, a Reform congregation in Oakville, Ont. “It’s a real, living thing.”
Sha’ar HaNegev is a mainly secular district with 10 kibbutzim. Located in the northern Negev desert, Sha’ar HaNegev is under the threat of rocket attacks from the nearby Gaza Strip. Over the past few years, Reform Jews there have borrowed a Torah from other congregations.
There are more than 40 Reform congregations in Israel, Rothschild said, and that number keeps growing.
When the Torateinu ARZA arrives in Israel at the end of June, it will not go directly to the Sha’ar HaNegev community. First, the Women of the Wall will read from the scroll on Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, at the Western Wall.
The members of Women of the Wall have prayed there together for 25 years, raising awareness about religious freedom in Israel. Women are currently not allowed to read from the Torah at the Wall. On that morning, three 12-year-old girls are to read from the Torateinu ARZA in honour of their bat mitzvahs.
