Hundreds help to complete Torah scroll to be presented in honour of Lord Sacks

A Torah scroll completed with the help of hundreds of congregants from a Hertfordshire shul will be presented in honour of Rabbi Lord Sacks next month.

The project was launched by Dovid and Leah Mitz of the Elstree & Borehamwood Jewish Life Centre, after the former recovered from Covid-19 in Match 2020.

The Mitz family, Rabbi Chaim Hoch and Leah Hoch committed to the Rabbi Sacks Unity Torah initiative while Dovid was ill, and together with members of the community, commissioned a Manchester scribe to complete the scroll when he recovered.

Hundreds of members of the synagogue filled in letters of the Torah, which will be presented on Sunday 6 March in honour of the former chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, who died in November 2020.

The Torah will be paraded in the town centre outside the Jewish Life Centre and in Borehamwood’s shopping park.

Leah Mitz said: “It has been amazing to see a cross section of the community come together and rally behind the Unity Torah. Hundreds of people from different denominations and backgrounds have inscribed a letter in the Torah. It’s truly inspiring how the project has brought so many people together.”

Rabbi Chaim Hoch added: “After nearly 18 months, the Unity Torah is soon going to be welcomed to Elstree and Borehamwood. We’re excited to invite the community to come together next month and crown the Torah in its new home in the Jewish Life Centre, but it will ultimately be available for all to use.”