HEADLINES | 6
REAL ESTATE/BANKING | 14
HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN AFRICA
PHOENIX REALTOR AUTHORS BOOK
Tali Nates, the founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, spoke at Temple Solel
Oleg Bortman wants to ‘inspire success and freedom’
MARCH 22, 2024 | ADAR II 12, 5784 | VOLUME 76, NUMBER 14
Surviving Holocaust Torah scrolls honored in Phoenix celebration SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
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en Cherny was part of several pairings of Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors who tenderly carried Torah scrolls through a sizable crowd at the Arizona Jewish Historical Society (AZJHS) in Phoenix on Sunday, Feb. 25. Cradled in Cherny’s arms was one of hundreds of Torah scrolls that survived a Nazi campaign of synagogue desecration and destruction across the regions of Bohemia and Moravia, now known as the Czech Republic. For reasons that Holocaust historians still debate, the huge collection of Torah scrolls and other Judaic objects were housed in Prague’s Jewish Museum until 1948, when they were transferred to a warehouse outside of the city and kept in less-than-ideal conditions, leaving them at risk of deterioration. In the early 1960s, a British philanthropist bought all the scrolls that remained — 1,564 Torah scrolls — and shipped them to his London synagogue. The Memorial Scrolls Trust, the volunteer-run organization founded to care for the scrolls, not only repaired and restored the scrolls, they began loaning 1,400 of them to Jewish communities throughout the world. About 150 are too fragile to ship and so remain in London. The scrolls are never sold or gifted and are meant to be returned to the trust if an individual borrower dies or the Jewish community possessing a scroll merges with another community with one. This February marks the 60th anniversary of the loan program, and 30 of the scrolls SEE SCROLLS, PAGE 2
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‘You are not alone’ is message of CJP solidarity trip to Israel MALA BLOMQUIST | MANAGING EDITOR
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few societal assumptions were destroyed after the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, according to the Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC): Parents will always keep their children safe; one can feel secure at home; and if there is ever a situation of violence against Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the government will make sure everything is all right. Talia Levanon, CEO of the ITC, was just one of the many people that met with the Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix’s (CJP) Israel Solidarity Mission during its four-day trip, Feb. 25-29. The group of 13, ranging in age from 13 to 81, started in Jerusalem by visiting the Western Wall for some quiet prayer time. Participants noticed two additions to the plaza since any of them had last visited the Kotel: signs advising people of protected areas to take shelter should they hear a siren, and a large installation of yahrzeit candles. “All of us had the chance to light yahrzeit SEE TRIP, PAGE 3
Memorials on the site of the Supernova music festival. COURTESY OF THE CENTER FOR JEWISH PHILANTHROPY OF GREATER PHOENIX
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Team Israel is launching an American organization to support baseball’s growth in Israel