By Eric Berger – Chabad.org
The Jewish community on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, will gather this evening at 7 p.m. for inspiration and prayer for the safe return of two Torah scrolls stolen from the Chabad center.
On Sunday morning, a member of the community entered the sanctuary and noticed that the yad, the ritual Torah pointer, was outside the ark, according to Rabbi Itchel and Pearl Krasnjansky, longtime directors of Chabad of Hawaii in the city of Honolulu. When the congregant went to put the pointer back in the ark, he saw that the scrolls were missing.
The cost of commissioning a scribe to write a Torah like the ones stolen runs between $40,000 and $50,000, Pearl Krasnjansky tells Chabad.org.
The center is offering a $5,000 reward for the return of the Torahs, and an anonymous donor has offered an additional $5,000.
“We are not interested in revenge or prosecution,” says Krasnjansky. “We just want the Torahs back in our synagogue.” She adds that the missing scrolls have backstories that make the theft particularly painful for the local community.
One of the scrolls dates back to Lithuania in the 1850s; it survived the Holocaust and was donated to the center about a decade ago. The other was commissioned in honor of local resident Daniel Levey, a 19-year-old who fell to his death in 2003 while hiking a trail in Oahu.
“It’s traumatic,” states Krasnjansky. “It feels like, G‑d forbid, a death in the family.”
The thief or thieves did not appear to have disturbed or taken anything else in the sanctuary, according to the Chabad emissary. “Whoever did it,” she says, “knew what they were doing.”
‘Custodians of the Torah’
After learning of the theft, Rabbi Krasnjansky met with Transportation Security Administration officials at Honolulu International Airport to try and recover the Torahs before someone could leave the island and attempt to sell them on the black market. The rabbi also contacted local police and held a press conference. He is also speaking with representatives of his insurance company to find out if the Torahs are covered.
Pearl Krasnjansky and one of her sons drove to the airport to distribute posters describing the missing Torahs. Other members of the community have traveled around the island searching for the Torahs and asking people for any leads.
In the meantime, the rabbi flew to the Big Island to pick up a Torah that his center had lent to the Chabad center there so the Oahu center will not be without a scroll. It’s now in the ark where the other two once stood. It is not the first incident the community has faced recently. In the fall, a person or persons spray-painted anti-Semitic words on a sidewalk outside the Chabad center.
On Thursday night, the Krasnjanskys will host a community gathering “to strengthen each other and ask what can be done on a spiritual level because we are, after all, custodians of the Torahs,” explains the rabbi. “We legally own them, but we are actually just custodians. The fact that this could happen should move us to do some spiritual soul-searching because everything that happens has a spiritual root.”
The rabbi plans to “talk about what we can each do in our own spiritual journey to strengthen ourselves and our connection to G‑d, which hopefully will provide the spiritual vessels to help whoever took them have a change of heart and bring them back.”
Honolulu, Hawaii news, sports & weather – KITV Channel 4
Don’t be so quick to label someone as a poishea. Have you mastered the laws of nezikin that you can comfortably decide who is guilty of negligence and who is clear. In addition, what knowledge do you have of the protocols of this particular chabad house of when the shule is itself locked or when there would be someone there to keep an eye etc.
cannot believe seforim were not locked away . sorry to be so blunt but this is simply a case of peshia-negligence. Just because you live on a pacific island you cannot be blind to what happens around the world
If they have any file photos of the writing they should be circulated so that those in the stam industry can be on the lookout and check the ksav if it comes up for sale
B”H this shul is on the lobby floor of a major, posh hotel (Ala Moana). Surely there’s multiple good cameras that captured perpetrator(s). I can imagine hearts are skipping beats from this loss – bH may it be very temporary. Nice search efforts. May you yield good results soon!
I agree with no 8, I think it was in inside job, or someone that knew what the Torahs was worth
Just terrible.
A local Hawaiian would not know what the values of the Torahs.
It is most like someone who knows the ins and out of the shul and knew no one would be there. It could be a YID who knows what the Torahs are worth…..’
You know who I am,Tzivia you will live through this!!!!!!
this place is so liberal and a sanctuary state that you get a lot of criminals
were there no surveillance cameras?
if not, someone should donate
Always put tzeddakah into a pushka designated for Rabbi Meir Baal Haness first. Often (usually) the stuff is found.
Now is time to act. Every shul needs a safe.
There was not even a lock on the Aron Kodesh.
Let’s be smart and invest in a safe.
This is the fourth or fifth report of a Sefer torah being stolen in the last twelve months.
Flatbush
Eretz Yisroel
Hawaii
Ectra
Mezuzos and tfillin checked recently?