Admiral, 'Torahs for Our Troops' Sail into JCC

Military helicopters don't charge baggage fees, but they certainly have weight limits. A Christian chaplain carrying a few bibles? Probably not a problem. But how about a rabbi hauling a 25-pound, two-and-a-half-foot-high Torah? 

Torahs–hand-written, 245-page scrolls that contain the Five Books of Moses–are a central part of Jewish worship. But because of the scrolls' size and weight, Jewish chaplains who travel between military bases, training centers, ships, and outposts must leave Torahs behind. 

Transporting Torahs is a problem that has challenged military rabbis since 1862, when Rabbi Jacob Frankel became the United States military's first Jewish chaplain. But at the JCC of Central New Jersey on Wednesday night, Rear Admiral Harold L. Robinson offered a solution.  

"We're writing small Torah scrolls that you can actually fit in your gear," he said, dressed in a spotless white Navy uniform and cap, its black bill wreathed in gold oak leaves. "When the helicopter comes to take you from your ship, you can take it with you." 

Robinson, a rabbi and the director of the Jewish Welfare Board-Jewish Chaplains Council, delivered the lecture as part of a nationwide fundraising drive called "Torahs for Our Troops." The JWB-Jewish Chaplains Council launched the campaign in September, when it commissioned the writing of six new, portable Torahs for the military's rabbis. Each Torah costs about $36,000 to produce. 

Torahs, Robinson said, can ease the loneliness of Jewish service members, who comprise about one percent of the United States military. "Right now, we're trying to get down to 50,000 troops in Iraq. That's 500 Jews. Five hundred Jews is a great congregation. But it's not like that there, they're spread very thin: two or three or four Jews [at each base]."

The same holds true for Jewish chaplains: 24 active-duty rabbis are charged with serving roughly 15,000 Jewish soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines across the globe. A minority of those chaplains travel, spending four or five days at a military installation or aboard a ship. 

"It's amazing, when you have a Torah scroll, people know they're in a synagogue," he said.

Zerach Greenfield, a sofer, or religious scribe, led the second half of the program. He described the process of crafting a Torah–one page per day, one year per Torah–and held aloft the instruments used in each step of the process: turkey feathers for quills, animal skin for parchment, and black ink made from four ingredients. 

After the program, Greenfield invited those who made donations to the "Torahs for Our Troops" program to help him inscribe a letter in one of the six commissioned Torahs–a rare honor that Jews regard as a blessing. 

"To see my son help write the Torah, it was beyond words," said Aron Richman, 51, of Fanwood. Both Aron and his 11-year-old son Alan, helped Greenfield inscribe a letter in the Torah. "I'm going to hope he remembers it for the rest of his life."

If you are interested in making a donation to "Torahs for Our Troops," or if you would simply like to learn more about the program, visit the JWB's website: http://www.jcca.org/jwb/.