Wisconsin Synagogue Dedicates Torah Three Years After Break-In

Visitors from around Wisconsin joined out-of-state guests at the Chabad-Lubavitch center in Kenosha to celebrate the dedication of a new Torah scroll commissioned after the theft of the center’s previous two scrolls.

Although the original two scrolls were eventually returned following the 2008 incident, Rabbi Tzali Wilschanski told the Kenosha News that “once you start something positive, you shouldn’t stop.”

Almost 100 people came to witness the penning of the Torah’s final holy letters and then danced with the new scroll, which was dedicated in honor of Wilschanski’s late grandfather, Rabbi Tzvi Yosef Kotlarsky.

Rabbi Tzali Wilschanski, director of Chabad of Kenosha, teaches children about the work that goes into writing a Torah scroll.

The Aug. 28 celebration brought almost 100 people to Chabad of Kenosha, where they danced with the new Torah scroll dedicated in honor of Rabbi Tzali Wilschanski’s late grandfather, Rabbi Tzvi Yosef Kotlarsky.

The new Torah scroll was commissioned after the theft of the center’s previous two scrolls.

Although the original two scrolls were eventually returned following the 2008 incident, Rabbi Tzali Wilschanski told the local newspaper that “once you start something positive, you shouldn’t stop.”

Guests witnessed the penning of the Torah’s final holy letters before dancing with the new scroll.

A native of Poland, Rabbi Tzvi Yosef Kotlarsky made it to China during World War II. He later arrived in North America, where he participated in the building of the Chabad-Lubavitch school systems in Montreal and Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Torah dedication united local Jewish community members and dozens of guests from out of town.