Restoring a Torah

East Rockaway boys’ b’nei mitzvah project re-introduces sacred scroll

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On Nov. 9, the 77th anniversary of Kristallnacht — the Night of Broken Glass — two bar mitzvah boys, Jesse Herrnson and Adam Polokoff, both of East Rockaway, observed by 30 Holocaust survivors, their families, friends and members of the Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre, rededicated a Torah scroll that was first used nearly 170 years ago.

The boys raised money to help pay for the Torah’s restoration. Jesse’s father, Rabbi Lev Herrnson, is the founder and president of the Torah Restoration Project, a nonprofit organization that restores old Torah scrolls and returns them to synagogue service. “By restoring this Torah scroll,” Rabbi Herrnson said, “we’ve given voice to generations past and educated today’s youth to remain vigilant concerning the future.”

“We are so very proud of both Adam and Jesse,” said Stuart Polokoff, Adam’s father. “Together they have made a difference in a world that is still filled with so much senseless violence.”

Adam’s mother, Deborah Polokoff, added that one of the Holocaust survivors spoke to her son at the end of the service, and told him that the future is in safe hands with young men like him and Jesse. “I was three yards away from the gas chambers,” the survivor said. “Thank you for turning that horrible memory into something meaningful and positive.”

Adam was moved by the experience as well. “I will never forget the look on the survivors’ faces when they saw the Torah,” he said. “I think they felt happy that it survived, too!”

Jesse noted that it took simple measures on their part to make the restoration possible. “We sold homemade baked goods to the people,” he said, “in order to give the Torah back to the people.”

The Night of Broken Glass

Just prior to Nov. 9, 1938, the Torah scroll was buried, and it remained underground for nearly 10 years. It survived the violence of Kristallnacht, a series of coordinated, deadly attacks on Jews throughout Nazi Germany and Austria. Somehow the Jews learned about the massacre, and they had time to dig a hole in which to hide the sacred scroll.

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