New Torah Scroll Sign of Buenos Aires Community's Growth

Hundreds of community members took to the streets in the middle-class Colegiales neighborhood of Buenos Aires to welcome a new Torah scroll given to the local Chabad-Lubavitch center directed by Rabbi Eli and Devorah Leah Levy.

Donated by Roberto and Zully Goldfarb, the Torah represented the conclusion of a campaign begun just after the Jewish New Year.

During Rosh Hashanah services last fall, Levy, whose two-year-old Beit Jabad Colegiales provides a wealth of activities to the area's Jewish residents, announced that raising money for a Torah would be a top priority.

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"Everyone was excited with the idea of having a Torah scroll," he related.

Three days after the announcement, friend Dan Goldfarb – who had not heard of the new effort – called to say that he was getting married. His parents wished to donate a Torah scroll to a worthy Jewish community in honor of his and wife-to-be Carolina's nuptials.

"I'm very proud that my parents chose not only to worry about us, but also about the community at large," said Goldfarb. "When two Jews meet, they should think how to do something good for a third Jew. How much more so when two souls reencounter in marriage, should they make a difference for the rest of the community."

For his part, the rabbi chuckles when thinking of the fortuitous sets of circumstances.

"It was very funny," he said. "He didn't even know that I had pledged a Torah scroll to the community a few days earlier.

"Sometimes," he added, "one just has to decide to do a certain project to make it happen."

Levy said that in the past two years, the community has experienced tremendous growth.

"At the beginning, very few people knew about the new community, but in a short period of time it became the address for Judaism in the area," he explained, noting that the Chabad House has already outgrown its present space. "To the bewilderment of the neighbors, more than 350 community members came to dance with the Torah in the streets."

Goldfarb stated that his family's choice of the center was a natural one.

"It is the thriving new community in Buenos Aires," he said. "We have seen in a short time how it has grown."

Not one to be satisfied with a goal accomplished, Levy quickly gave the community a new mission. Speaking at the ceremony, he announced a plan to buy the Chabad House's rented space and expand the building.