By COLlive reporter
A new Chabad center was inaugurated last week and given the unique name of “Protective Edge,” dedicated to the fallen Israel Defense Soldiers who were killed in Israel’s recent military campaign in Gaza.
The center in the city of Limassol, on the southern coast of Cyprus, was donated by Pinchas Paterkashvilli and will be serving the many Jewish and Israeli tourists that visit the island.
“We are inaugurating this in memory of the Israeli soldiers, the Israel heroes, who were fallen during Operation Protective Edge,” Chief Rabbi of Cyprus Aryeh Zeev Raskin said upon cutting the ribbon. “May this home be a place of holiness, joy and blessing.”
He was joined in the cutting and affixing the Mezuzah by another donor, his father Rabbi Yehoshua Raskin and the Israeli Ambassador to Cyprus Michael Harari.
While the event featured mostly joyous chassidic and Israeli music, there was a somber moment when Hillel Lando, who lost a close friend in the Gaza War, spoke about his pain and the hope the new center will bring.
The event was concluded with a speech by Rabbi Yisroel Gerlitzky about the meaning of the month of Elul, as the Jewish world prepares for the High Holidays, and the sounding of the shofar by Rabbi Raskin.
Rabbi Raskin is truly an amazing person not just a shliach. Heand his wife Shaindel are the best there is.
Are most of these people from Cyprus