Sefer Torah in memory of community champion welcomed home

Within a month of the sudden death of community champion Leonie Lewis last April, her family commissioned a Sefer Torah in her name, written in Jerusalem.

A Jewish community powerhouse for decades, awarded an MBE by the Queen in 2017, Lewis died at the age of 66 following a diagnosis of lymphona.

Last Thursday a Hachnasat Sefer Torah, the welcoming of a scroll to its new home, was held in Pinner, bringing the streets to a halt for 30 minutes, whilst the procession proceeded to the synagogue of which Lewis was a proud member.

The scroll, by sofer Nachum Blotnik, was finished by family and friends of Leonie with local assistance provided by sofer Chaim Lopian at the Lewis home. It was then paraded through the streets with songs provided by Shlomie Gertner and his choir.

Once in Pinner United synagogue it was greeted by the other sifrei torah and singing and dancing. This was followed by family speeches from Pinner synagogue Rabbi Kurzer and Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum, the dean of the London School of Jewish Studies and a friend of Leonie’s for many years.

The shul event was attended by 300 people, with many more taking part in the procession. The sefer torah was leined on the following Shabbat before being taken to be donated and used in the Keter Torah community in Teaneck New Jersey, USA, where Leonie’s elder son Adam lives and is currently the gabbai, or treasurer.

Rabbi Shalom Baum, Rabbi of Keter Torah said: “We are privileged to be the shul where the Torah being written in memory of Leonie Lewis will find its home. Mrs Lewis was a living Sefer Torah, imbued with the personal and communal values of our Torah, as understood by our Sages.”

The sefer torah will travel to Lewis family simchot wherever they are held.

Leonie Lewis’s life was dedicated to service. A founding director of the Jewish Volunteering Network (JVN), she was a trustee and council member of the Faith Forum for London, joint vice-president of the United Synagogue, former co-chair of United Synagogue Women, adviser to the Children’s Aid Committee and assessor for the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.