This Rosh Hashana, Chabad of Oxnard celebrated with a new Torah that dates back to World War II.
The Torah was presented last month during a lively procession down a main boulevard with live music and dancing as Chabad of Oxnard celebrated its 13th-year bar mitzvah.
The event began with a VIP reception on a luxury yacht, followed by the main event at the Channel Islands Yacht Club.
Guests enjoyed dinner and entertainment, followed by dessert and the presentation of the newly restored Torah scroll.
“The scroll, which originated in Eastern Europe and miraculously survived the Nazi persecution, was sold by a Judaica collector to a Los Angeles scribe,” Oxnard Shliach Rabbi Dov Muchnik, told the Ventura County Star. “An inscription on one of the handles of the Torah bears the word ‘Perlitz,’ possibly referring to the shtetl, or village, of its origin. Our research indicates at least two Jewish villages of that name existed prior to the Holocaust — one in Moldova and one in Bavaria.”
Jewish residents of both villages were killed or rounded up and shipped to concentration camps, and their synagogues were destroyed by Nazis, Muchnik said. No one knows exactly how the Torah made it through unscathed.
The Torah, which still has its original handles, contains the Five Books of Moses, but some of the letters had faded over the years. Because Jewish law dictates that each letter in the Torah must be perfectly rendered, the old document was “painstakingly renewed,” Muchnik said.
“All of the children, I want you to come here,” the rabbi said last month as he presented the scroll to the group, which included about a dozen rabbis from across Southern California.
“The Jewish nation lives,” he said. “We didn’t die in Europe or in America because of assimilation. Thank God we live in a country where we can stand outside and celebrate without persecution. This country is kind.”
The crowd then gathered for Chabad of Oxnard’s Bar Mitzvah event, marking 13 years of Chabad of Oxnard. Rabbi Chaim Bryski of Chabad of Thousand Oaks said Rabbi Dov Muchnik and his wife, Racheli, deserve praise for leading the Chabad of Oxnard for the past 13 years.
Chabad of Oxnard Tribute Video
Amazing work you guys are doing. Your video is breathtaking… but the two of you are even more
Unbelievable. True powerhouses!!
Keep making the rebbe proud.
Mazel tov! You should continue to grow mechoyal elchoyal.
So proud of you.
Chaya and zvi
I see you Sadya 🙂
Best shliach, and great musician
The video brought me to tears of joy!
mimi chaya and yaffa!