More than five million Jews throughout the world have participated to date in the Lubavitch project through which Jews purchase a letter in a Torah Scroll produced in Israel, delegates to the 27th annual international convention of the Lubavitch Youth Organization were told.
Rabbi Shmuel Butman, director of the youth unit and chairman of the recent convention, reported on the Sefer Torah campaign which was initiated some 18 months ago by Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, the Lubavitcher rebbe. The convention was held at the world headquarters of the Hasidic movement in Brooklyn.
Butman said the convention had “a particular significance” because it was dedicated to Schneerson’s 80th year. He said the five million Jews had registered in 19 Torah Scrolls.
Rabbi S. Gurary, Schneerson’s brother-in-law, and chairman of the executive committee of the United Lubavitcher Yeshivos, reported that more than one million Jews had registered for their own letters in the four Torah Scrolls, of the total of 19, underwritten by the United Lubavitcher Yeshivos. He said three had been completed.
Rabbi Ch. M.A.Hadokov, head of the rebbe’s secretariat, the keynote speaker, proposed that every Jewish community in all parts of the world be visited by a Lubavitch group at least once in the next 12 months. Butman reported that among the Jews contributing to the Torah Scroll project were “thousands” in the Soviet Union, Arab countries and Iran.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
