April 2, 2004
Edmond J. Safra Synagogue Values Timeless
Heritage
Torah teachers honored at Mesorah Heritage Foundation community event
Though it is barely a year old, the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue put itself in the forefront of a national campaign to recognize the vitality of Torah study and honor the teachers who educate the community. The Sephardic congregation co-sponsored a community breakfast with the Mesorah Heritage Foundation on Sunday, March 28 in the synagogue’s elegant new building on East 63rd street. Rabbi Elie A. Abadie, M.D., spiritual leader of the congregation, felt that his heartfelt goal of bringing Torah study into the daily lives of the synagogue’s members dovetailed with the work of the Foundation.
Edmond J. Safra Synagogue Awardees with Mesorah Heritage Foundation dignitaries Left to right: Andrew J. Neff, co-chair
of the Foundation’s Year of Learning
and Celebration; |
The mission of the Mesorah Heritage Foundation is to preserve Jewish heritage and foster Jewish scholarship through the publication of classic Judaic works in translation. To accomplish this goal, it recruits accomplished translators, scholars, writers and editors to publish translations and elucidations of Hebrew and Aramaic Jewish literature in English, French and Spanish. By enabling ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications to publish prayer books, Bibles and other Jewish works in much-needed translation, it has a fueled a modern renaissance of “Torah literacy.”
Its most ambitious endeavor has been the publication of the Schottenstein English Edition of the Talmud. This monumental, 73-volume work has been published one tractate at a time, and will be completed one year from now, after fifteen years of painstaking labor. The worldwide impact of the Schottenstein Talmud has been unprecedented, giving tens of thousands of Jews access to this traditional mainstay of Jewish life and learning. To celebrate its upcoming 2005 completion, the Foundation embarked on a “Year of Learning and Celebration.”
Community events in prominent synagogues is an important part of the Year of Learning and Celebration program, and the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue volunteered to be one of the first to hold such an event. It featured the presentation of awards to members of the congregation whose service to the new synagogue is exemplary. Two lay scholars, Dr. Joseph Shams and Stanley Betesh were honored for their roles as founders of the Beit Midrash Program, in which they teach Torah to fellow members on a regular basis. Haron Shohet received the Bedek Habayit Award for his untiring service to the synagogue, and Philip Rutstein likewise received the Community Service Award for nurturing the daily minyan and other communal endeavors.
Rabbi Netanel Kasnett, a Senior Editor of the Schottenstein Talmud presented a survey of the complex process of creating the Gemara elucidation. Rabbi Nosson Scherman, General Editor of ArtScroll/Mesorah, spoke not only of the Schottenstein Talmud that is nearing completion, but also of the Edmond J. Safra French edition of the Talmud that is enlightening French-speaking Jews worldwide. Rabbi Scherman noted that during the 13th century, 24 wagonloads of handwritten Jewish books were seized from synagogues and homes in France and burned in a public square in Paris, to the cheers of onlookers. Today, not ten minutes from that ignoble site, the Edmond J. Safra Edition of the Talmud is being written by Jewish scholars. The congregation also had the opportunity to meet Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz, the visionary founder of ArtScroll and Chairman of the Mesorah Heritage Foundation.
The members of the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue received their distinguished guests warmly, sharing with them the camaraderie of Jews who value their heritage and seek to preserve it for the next generation. Several members of the congreg ation brought their children to the community event, impressing upon them the timeless lesson that the study of Torah is not only a pleasure and a privilege, but an integral part of Jewish life.