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| OHCC LIVING | JULY 2021 | 17 Yiddish Club You are in for a real treat, everyone! Our past president, Sy Singer, recently submitted, this memorable, warm, and touching story, titled The Everlasting Torah. Hope you all enjoy it! The Torah contains the five books of Moses. Every Saturday, Monday, and Thursday mornings, 10 or more Jewish men meet in every part of the world and read a small portion of the Torah. They complete the entire Torah each year and then start again from the beginning. This has been going on, I believe, for over 1,000 years. My wife Roslyn and I retired from our professions in January 1990 and moved to Maui to enjoy the rest of our lives in paradise. We had previously purchased a two-bedroom condominium in Ma'alia Surf. The small Jewish community had two separate congregations and we joined both of them. The Gan Eden group held services in the Roman Catholic Library in Ka'anapoli. At one of our services, a couple from Ramona, California told us that their temple had purchased a Holocaust Torah from Westminster Synagogue in England. The Nazis in WWII had tried to destroy all evidence of Judaism in most of Europe. They collected Jewish ceremonial objects: books, Torahs, and other objects and threw them into a synagogue in Prague, Czechoslovakia and chained the doors shut. Their intention was to display these objects in a museum regarding an "extinct race." The allied bombing destroyed the roof of this synagogue and most of the contents became waterlogged. In 1963, Jewish scholars from England paid the Czech government $30,000, salvaged the remnants, including 1,564 Torahs, and took them to Westminster Synagogue. My wife and I purchased one of these Torahs in 1991 and donated it to Gan Eden Congregation. It arrived with broken spindles, waterlogged, and separated pages. One of our members purchased new spindles, special tape, and other supplies and we spent the next few months repairing our special Torah. We used the Torah and had a ceremonial dedication of it at the Grand Wailea Hotel. Unfortunately, we moved from Maui in March of 1992, and returned to Los Angeles. Now, 20 years later, my beloved partner, Selma Leighton and I, stand here in Maui and celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of my only grandson, Sol, with the same Torah. A joyous occasion! What a beautiful story! I thank Sy for sharing a portion of his life with us.