JTF.ORG Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Yisrael on June 26, 2007, 12:27:30 AM
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Norfolk, VA - A Torah rescued from Lithuania has got a new home on the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman.
The carrier is one of the few Navy vessels to have its own Torah. Few ships are large enough to need one, said Sam Werbel, an organizer of a dedication ceremony Sunday attended by 500 community members and dignitaries. The audience included Holocaust survivors.
Several Jewish service members celebrated the event with the heavy 26-inch high scroll bearing the words of the Tanach.
About 5 percent or less of Lithuania's Jewish population survived the Holocaust. No religious artifacts, other than this Torah, are thought to remain of that country's Jewish population, organizers said.
Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, attended Sunday's dedication. He said Truman's namesake carrier was a fitting home for a Torah that would help service members "grow in their appreciation of our Jewish faith." [AP]
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No religious artifacts other than the Torah are thought to remain from the entire Lithuanian Jewish population! Amazing that this Naval carrier is using it now. My grandparents were from Vilnus, Lithuania but left for Israel before the shoah.
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This is very cool! I won't even let the fact that Carl Levin was there ruin it.