On Thursday, April 16, the JKHA Lower School commemorated Yom HaShoah with a program tailored to this young audience. Students gathered in the Klatt Beit Midrash and were shown the school’s Holocaust Sefer Torah—donated by the Mosberg family—which was saved from that time period. A discussion of how many letters are in a sefer Torah ensued. Afterwards, the children were asked which is the most important letter, to which they answered that all the letters are important. Their answer was confirmed when they learned that if even one of the 304,805 letters is missing, the whole Torah scroll has to be wrapped up and put away until it is repaired. The analogy was made to the concept that all Jews, big or small, rich or poor, a pious scholar or just a simple Jew, are important—the notion that all Jews are an integral part of Am Yisrael. The miraculous story was told of another sefer Torah that was saved in Krakow and was eventually returned to its rightful home. The very same sifrei Torah, the students were told, that are being used today, were likewise used by their ancestors. The students were taught that past, present and future Jews are linked by their love of Hashem and adherence to the Torah.

By Naomi Maron