On September 20, a ceremony was held to introduce a new Torah scroll to the synagogue in Makeyevka, located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The fact that this event occurred on the eve of Rosh Hashanah makes it even more memorable.
The synagogue, located on Tolstoy Street, was built five years ago. Rabbi Eliyahu Kramer and his wife Hadassah have already been working with the local Jewish community for seven years. They saw their work culminate on 21 Elul 5771 (September 20, 2011) with the occurrence of this major event.
The Torah scroll arrived from the Jewish community of Dnepropetrovsk, the town where the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe had grown up. This is also the hometown of Asher Itzhak Zatulovskiy, who donated this invaluable scroll to the Makeyevka community in honor of his mother, Kira Zatulovskaya, who passed away when her son was still a little boy.
Itzhak Asher, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish community, arrived in Makeyevka for this occasion, along with his father, Lev Davidovich, his brother David and many of their friends. The ceremony, held at the “Ukraine” restaurant, was attended by guests from Donetsk and several nearby communities (e.g. Konstantinovka, Gorlovka, Zugres), as well as members of the Makeyevka Jewish community.
Here, the final letters in the Torah were written. Rabbi Boruch Lamdan from Donetsk oversaw this special ceremony, for which the honor to write the very last letters were given to honored friends and family of Asher Itzhak and finally to himself.
Afterwards, the shofar was sounded by Rabbi Eliyahu Kramer, heralding the imminent onset of the new year. On behalf of himself and his wife and all Jews of Makeyevka, Rabbi Kramer expressed his sincere gratitude to Dnepropetrovsk guests for their vital gift: now Jews of Makeyevka can live a truly Jewish life.
“This was a monumental day in the history of the Makeyevka Jewish community,” stated Chief Rabbi of Donetsk Pinchas Vyshedsky during the introduction of the Torah scroll to this city’s synagogue. Towards everyone who made this gift possible, through their encouragement, organizational efforts and financial sponsorship, he wished that G-d rewards their efforts multi-fold. He also wished that these blessings reach all Jews of Makeyevka. “May your gift will be vital in promoting happiness and prosperity in what is still a small community,” stated Rabbi Vyshedsky.