Family members of the late Mordecai Goldstein at Ramat Hadassah Szold for the dedication of the Torah scroll donated by Congregation Neve Shalom, from left, his widow, Barbara; granddaughter, Adi Mushkin; and daughter, Shira Mushkin
March 18, 2008
Congregation Neve Shalom has made a gift to a youth village in Israel in memory of its late cantor, Mordecai Goldstein, in hopes of nurturing the love of Jewish learning that many consider his legacy.
On Feb. 27, with Goldstein’s widow, daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter in attendance, hundreds of young people and officials celebrated as a Torah scroll donated by the Metuchen synagogue was welcomed to Ramat Hadassah Szold in Israel’s North.
“We did it because they were in need of a Torah,” said Barbara Spack, a Neve Shalom member and Hadassah’s national chair of youth aliya/children at risk. “They were using a pasul [unkosher] Torah in this village because that was all they had.”
The youth village is named for Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah.
Spack, who was in Israel for the board of governors meeting of the Jewish Agency for Israel, came north afterward with a number of officials for the presentation ceremony at Ramat Hadassah Szold.
Among those who addressed the assembled youngsters and guests were former national Hadassah president June Walker; JAFI chair Zeev Bielski; village chair Moshe Zin; and Avi Naor and the cantor’s widow, Barbara Goldstein, both on the village board of directors.
Numerous Hadassah board members and leaders and members of the Israeli Ministry of Education also accompanied the scroll as it was carried in a procession to its new home. The village — a haven for at-risk youth — is located outside Tivon, just east of Haifa.
Cantor Goldstein died Sept. 26 in Jerusalem, where he moved after m
aking aliya in 1999 following a 25-year tenure at Neve Shalom.
The 309 young people in the village include a number of Ethiopians, according to Spack, all of whom participate in a program in which “they learn to love being Jewish.”
“These are youngsters who really learn nothing in their homes and now because of this program they dress up every Friday night, put on a kipa, and celebrate Shabbat,” said Spack. “Not only are they learning but they are taking it home to their families.”
As a part of the Joy of Judaism Program, the youngsters study Torah; an Aishet Chayil program is offered for the girls who live in the village.
In the Joy of Judaism program, said Spack, boys and girls are taught to do hevruta [partner] study and bar and bat mitzva studies together.
Neve Shalom found itself with a plethora of 18 Torah scrolls resulting from its mergers in recent years with Congregation Adath Israel of Woodbridge and Congregation Ohev Shalom of Colonia.
A youth from Ramat Hadassah Szold carries the Torah scroll donated to the village by Congregation Neve Shalom in memory of its late cantor, Mordecai Goldstein, on Feb. 27. Marching under a huppa that belonged to Goldstein are the cantor’s widow, Barbara, left, and Barbara Spack, a Neve Shalom member and Hadassah leader.
Photos courtesy Barbara Spack
Rabbi Gerald Zelizer, who came to Neve Shalom in 1970 and worked with Goldstein throughout the cantor’s tenure at the synagogue, said the scroll donation seemed a natural move.
Barbara Goldstein is a Hadassah leader in Israel, he said, “and we all feel a very powerful emotional channel through her in two directions, thr
ough her late husband and to this youth village. It’s a very powerful emotional channel between our beloved cantor and a local place that needed to have a Torah donated.”
Spack described the village as being “alive with anticipation” on the morning of Feb. 27. The Torah scroll was brought in under a huppa made from a tallit that belonged to Cantor Goldstein. Spack said the walk from the village entrance, which began with the blasts of three shofars and the beat of three drums, to the synagogue should have taken only five minutes. However, the procession took 30 minutes as excited youngsters sang, danced, and crowded around their new scroll.
“The children were there loving and hugging the Torah,” said Spack. “They knew it was something very special. Young danced with old, boys sangith girls, and all rejoiced with the Torah in joy, in love, with happiness and passion.”
Inside the synagogue, young people continued dancing and delivered “touching” divrei Torah in both English and Hebrew about the significance of receiving the scroll.
Spack said after sharing her own thoughts about Cantor Goldstein and what he meant to her congregation, she ended the ceremony with “the hope that through the Torah, his presence there in the village would be equally special for all who lived there.”
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