When Rabbi Mendel Solomon, Director of Chabad at Short Hills, New Jersey, heard that the released Gaza hostage, Eli Sharabi, was scheduled to speak in the area, he had an idea.
Sharabi, who was abducted by Hamas terrorists from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023, and remained in captivity for 491 days, was going to speak for three large local Jewish day schools at Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy (JKHA/RKYHS) in Livingston.
Rabbi Solomon recognized the opportunity and reached out to Rabbi Eliezer Rubin, the school’s head, for assistance in coordinating a special initiative: the writing of a new Torah in memory of the October 7 victims and in honor of all those who fight to safeguard Israel. The school agreed.
On Thursday, December 4, 2025, Yud Daled Kislev, Sharabi entered the campus, more than 500 lower and middle school students lined the walkway, standing shoulder to shoulder, singing, their voices and energy filling the air: V’Shavu Bonim Ligvulom – “The children have returned home.”
Sharabi then spoke with deep sincerity, sharing that although he never saw himself as religious, the very moment he was abducted, the first words that left his mouth were “Shema Yisrael.”
He said it in the car, in the tunnels, and every single day with and for his fellow hostages. The Shema became their anchor in the darkness.
Following his remarks, Rabbi Solomon addressed the audience, blessing Sharabi and recalling a childhood memory: accompanying his parents, especially his mother, in the early 1980s as the Rebbe launched the worldwide Sefer Torah campaign, inviting Jews everywhere to fulfill the final mitzvah of the Torah, writing a letter in a Sefer Torah, and welcoming all the faculty and students of all three schools to participate in this special mitzvah.
Sharabi, visibly emotional, wrote the very first letter, the “bais” of Bereshis, with the assistance of sofer stam Rabbi Moshe Klein. Students soon lined up to write their letters. Parents, faculty, and administrators, many experiencing this mitzvah for the first time, joined in.
A formal campaign will now invite the broader community to help complete the Sefer Torah, with heartfelt prayers that another newly released hostage, whose family is close with Shlucha Chana Solomon, will be present for its completion.
The new Sefer Torah was graciously initiated and sponsored by Ilana and Lance Kaplan, members of Chabad at Short Hills for two decades and now active members of Chabad in East Boca, Florida.
Rabbi Solomon said it was beautiful to see a survivor of terror, hundreds of children, educators, parents, and an entire community come together to begin writing a Torah of hope.
