Torah Repair Campaign

In June of 2008, TBS began a compaign to repair and restore its Sefri Torah (Torah Scrolls). At that point we had 12, of which four were usable, but three of those still needed some work and the fourth was very fragile (not in a correctable way). Of the remaining eight, five needed major repairs, and three were unfortunately, not repairable. Additionally, various Torah dressings, particularly the mantles and yads needed repair or replacement. The campaign was designed to restore and repair four of the pasul (not kosher) Scrolls and three of the kosher ones, as well as repair and replace dressings and silver. The total cost of the project was expected to be more than $30,000, and there was additional work that could take advantage of additional funds.

In April of 2011 we sent out for restoration / repair the last of the seven Scrolls that we'd planned to send out. However, very little work has been done on the silver and dressings. We still need additional donations to complete this project and to restore a buffer in our Torah repair fund.

The repair and restoration work, which occurs in Israel, includes:

• cleaning and treating the parchment, which will make the letters appear much darker and easier to read
• wiping the Torah with a special cloth that will help detect any letters that are about to crack or fall off so they can be fixed now
• repairing any cracked or fallen off letters
• in many cases, replacing the Atzei Chayim (handles/rollers) with new ones that are lighter, and easier to use
• a ten year guarantee

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Torah at tremontstreetshul.org.

Please help us complete this project by making a donation. Donations may be made on-line by clicking below. If you want the donation to be in memory of someone, or for a specific book/parsha/pasuk, please be sure to include that information in the "special instructions" box when confirming your payment with PayPal. If you'd prefer to use a check to donate, please make it out to "Temple Beth Shalom of Cambridge", note that it is for the "Torah fund" in the memo line, and send it to the address at the bottom of this page. PayPal does take a small cut of donations made through them, so checks are better for donations over $1000, but only if you remember to send the check, so feel free to make large donations electronically if that's easier.

Dedicate a Torah ($10,000) Please contact the office (office@tremontstreetshul.org or (617) 864-6388) if you (either personally, or as part of a group) would would like to dedicate one of our Torah Scrolls.

Sponsor the repair of part of a Torah...

Would your child like to make a small $1-$5 donation? Due to processing fees, it is impractical to accept donations smaller than $5 on-line, but you may bring/send your child's donation to the shul office.

Sponsorships will be acknowledged in Ausblick and on our website. Only dedications will be recorded on the Torah itself.