HAFTR celebrates new Torah and school opening

Posted Thursday, September 26, 2019 12:36 pm

The new Sefer Torah dedication prompted much dancing and singing at the HAFTR celebration on Sept. 15.

Jeffrey Bessen/Herald

Rabbi Aaron Feigenbaum carried the new Sefer Torah as the procession began to make its way to HAFTR Middle School on Frost Lane in Lawrence.

Jeffrey Bessen/Herald

HAFTR Middle School sixth-graders Leah Kammerman, left, and Naomi Lazarus, both 11 at the back to school carnival.

Jeffrey Bessen/Herald

Scribe Rabbi Moshe Lieberman, center, put the finishing touches on the new Torah.

Elizabeth Bessen/Herald

By Jeff Bessen

Plenty of dancing and singing accompanied the dedication of a new Sefer Torah and the back to school carnival was highlighted by multiple inflatables for children and food for everyone as the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway community marked a new school year at the Lawrence campus on Sept. 15.

HAFTR Executive Director Ari Solomon said the school was fundraising for a new Torah when fire struck the elementary school building on Jan. 10. “After the fire fundraising went towards the elementary school,” he said, adding that HAFTR board member Cal Nathan generously contributed for a new Torah at the high school and money raised at the annual dinner funded the new Torah.

Rabbi Moshe Lieberman was the Torah scribe. Asked what celebrating a new Torah means to him, HAFTR High freshman Gabriel Glatt, 14, said: “It is very special for the whole school to have a Torah and Torah is the foundation of our lives in Judaism.”

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HAFTR celebrates new Torah and school opening

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