As Yeshivat Noam welcomed in a new school year last week, it also welcomed in a brand new Aron Kodesh in the Middle School Beit Medrash.
The tall and majestic Aron Kodesh has beautiful dark wooden doors that are adorned with the design of a large golden menorah. One of its most unique features is the brightly lit interior portion, which consists of an ascending ladder that holds the Sifrei Torah, and which rotates when touched. The Aron is home to Yeshivat Noam’s three Torahs, which have been generously dedicated by Yeshivat Noam grandparents, Malca and Louis Drazin, and Yeshivat Noam parents, Shira and Clive Lipshitz, and Tammi and Bennett Schachter.
The Aron Kodesh was the centerpiece of the Sanctuary at Lincoln Square Synagogue on Manhattan’s West Side for years. Construction of the Synagogue’s new building a few doors down was nearing completion at the end of 2012. At the time, the congregation tried, without success, to find an appropriate place for the Aron in the new building. Left with no other choice when the congregation moved out of the old building, the Aron was dismantled and put into storage. If a new home would not be found for the Aron, it was ultimately to be buried.
Around the same time, Yeshivat Noam had completed the renovation of its brand new Middle School. The school’s new Beit Knesset had a temporary cabinet installed to hold its Sifrei Torah. Chaim Birman, a Yeshivat Noam parent and board and building committee member, happened to be overseeing the Lincoln Square Synagogue Project in his professional capacity. He brought the status of the Aron to principal Rabbi Chaim Hagler’s attention. Rabbi Hagler, who was once a youth director at Lincoln Square Synagogue, supported bringing this information to the Yeshivat Noam executive board’s attention. The board decided to pursue discussions with Lincoln Square Synagogue on possibly salvaging the Aron by relocating it into the new Middle School’s Beit Knesset. Over the months that followed, interested parties at both institutions worked together to make this a reality, culminating in the Aron’s installation at Yeshivat Noam at the end of August.
The Yeshivat Noam Middle School students received a special visit from Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin, the Chief Rabbi of Efrat, Israel, and the Founding Rabbi of the Lincoln Square Synagogue, on the first day of Torah reading following the students’ return to school, who told them the story of the Aron Kodesh. Specifically, Rabbi Riskin discussed the extraordinary individual who dedicated the Aron Kodesh to his shul.
The Aron Kodesh, which was designed and built by Edward Jacobs, an architect who is also Rabbi Riskin’s son-in-law, was dedicated by the late Mrs. Martha Cohn in honor of the memory of her parents, both of whom perished in the Holocaust.
Rabbi Riskin recounted how he hired Mrs. Cohn as the first full-time secretary of the Lincoln Square Synagogue when he started the shul in 1964.
At the time, Rabbi Riskin was seeking to hire a young and modern secretary as part of his effort to attract people from the neighborhood around Lincoln Center to the shul. Rabbi Riskin characterized them as “very liberal people politically and not very given to religion.”
In walked a 64-year-old woman with a heavy German accent who said that she wanted to be the secretary for the synagogue. “There was something about her that made me feel this is the person,” he said. Martha Cohn was a widow and was not blessed with children. Despite facing some challenges in her life, Rabbi Riskin noted that, “she steadfastly always remained deeply religious.”
Martha Cohn was incredibly dedicated to the shul and to her work. Mrs. Cohn knew the phone numbers of all of the congregants in Lincoln Square by heart. She understood that there was a great deal of sensitivity needed in dealing with the Orthodox and non-Orthodox members of the shul. “She knew everybody, she spoke to everybody, she knew where everyone had to sit,” said Rabbi Riskin. “Her dedication is impossible to describe. She noticed everything.”
Toward the end of her life, Mrs. Cohn told Rabbi Riskin that she wanted to make a dedication to the shul. Although she was not a wealthy woman, her life was dedicated to the Lincoln Square Synagogue and to Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Israel. “Her life was service to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and Judaism,” said Rabbi Riskin. Martha Cohn informed Rabbi Riskin that she wanted an Aron Kodesh and that it should be in a place where there were children who could kiss the Sifrei Torah inside the Aron Kodesh.
Rabbi Riskin lovingly showed the Yeshivat Noam students the inside of the Aron Kodesh, which swivels, and described how he used to spin the part of the Aron that held the Torahs. “She used to say the Rabbi makes the Torah dance and that’s what I would like–I would like the Torah to be dancing,” said Rabbi Riskin. “So, all the years that I was the Rabbi of the synagogue, I would make sure the Torah was dancing when the ark was opened.”
Rabbi Riskin explained to the Yeshivat Noam Middle School students that Lincoln Square Synagogue moved to a new building and Martha Cohn’s Aron Kodesh did not fit in the new sanctuary due to the height of the ceiling. The shul was planning to chop up the Aron Kodesh and bury the pieces. “When I heard that, I burst out in tears,” said Rabbi Riskin. “The Torah and children and the future of Torah were the most important things to her.”
Instead, the Aron Kodesh found a new home at Yeshivat Noam. “When I heard the Aron was coming here, you have no idea how happy it made me feel,” said Rabbi Riskin. “It’s an Aron Kodesh that was dedicated by a very, very, very special woman,” he said. “May it be really a very fitting blessing and memorial to a very special woman, Martha Cohn.”
The results are magnificent. Not only do the Aron and the Yeshivat Noam Beit Knesset complement each other beautifully within the space, but it is also a message to future generations of students about the respect we all should have for Klei Kodesh. Furthermore, the Aron Kodesh that Mrs. Cohn dedicated specifically for children to enjoy has now found its permanent home in Yeshivat Noam, surrounded by hundreds of children who daven in its presence daily.
“Not only were we fortunate to be the beneficiaries of an aesthetically pleasing Aron Kodesh, but our Sifrei Torah also received a new home that is infused with Kedusha because of the unique and beautiful story behind its creation,” said Rabbi Chaim Hagler, Principal of Yeshivat Noam. “We are extraordinarily grateful to have this special Aron Kodesh at Yeshivat Noam and are extremely thankful to Rabbi Riskin for visiting with us and sharing with our students the rich history behind this wonderful addition to our school.”
By Aaron Troodler
