B’nai Israel ends with dignity, extends legacy through Torah donation to CDS
'This sacred scroll is more than just words. It is our history, our identity and our lifeline'
After most of its books were boxed and tributes paid, a task remained for Temple B’nai Israel: gifting its final Torah. The transfer, which occurred on May 27 in Squirrel Hill, marked the end of a nearly 18-month process. At its start in December 2023, B’nai Israel’s President Lou Anstandig told the Chronicle the 113-year-old White Oak-based congregation would close in May 2025.
The announcement afforded time to proceed in an “orderly fashion” and “leave with dignity,” Anstandig said. “We didn’t want a situation where it was the last man out, shut the lights.”
So, for more than a year, the congregation’s leaders followed requisite steps to their spiritual home. They sold the building. They partnered with the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association. They hosted a final service. They preserved their records. They buried sacred writings. They gifted two Torahs: one to a Cleveland-based Jewish group, the other to Makom HaLev, an independent havurah in Pittsburgh.
Finally, more than a year and a half after announcing the closing, Anstandig, Rabbi Howie Stein and other B’nai Israel representatives traveled 10 miles northwest to donate their final Torah.
Waiting for the White Oak group and its sacred scroll were dozens of clapping children. Lining the outdoor walkway to Community Day School, scores of kindergarten, first and second graders awaited the procession.
As B’nai Israel leaders gathered in the Jewish day school’s parking lot, music blasted from a nearby speaker. Stein walked the Torah from a concrete stretch, down a ramp and into the building. Behind him were the congregation’s leaders, young learners and teachers.
Attendees quickly found seats. Casey Weiss, CDS’ head of school, asked the pupils which of them considered 113 years a “long time.”
Numerous hands raised. Weiss invited Anstandig to the podium.
“David went and brought up the ark of God,” Anstandig said before continuing the biblical passage from 2 Samuel. “David danced with all his might before God; David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of God with shouts and with the sound of the shofar.”
Reciting a verse often sung on the holiday of Simchat Torah, second grader Leah Seltzer said, “Atah horaeita ladat, ki Hashem hu haelokim ein od.”
“Hashem is our God, there is no one else beside him,” Weiss said.
In unison, first graders rose and chanted the Shema, a prayer often deemed the watchword of the Jewish faith.
“This sacred scroll is more than just words,” Weiss said. “It is our history, our identity and our lifeline.”
Chairs were cleared and tables moved. The speaker sounded music again, and for nearly 15 minutes students, staff and visitors danced with the sacred parchment.
Stein passed the scroll to Cantor Barbara Barnett, a Hebrew and Torah teacher at the Jewish day school. Moments later, the Torah was in Weiss’ hands, then Anstandig’s, then students’. As celebrants danced in a circle, children took turns holding the Torah, kissing its cover and eating Hershey’s Kisses.
“In Psalms, it says, ‘How sweet are your words? To my taste, sweeter than honey.’ The Torah is indeed as sweet as honey,” Weiss said.
Endings and beginnings
After the Torah was placed in CDS’ ark, students returned to class. Anstandig, Stein and other B’nai Israel representatives remained on site. They casually sat around a table drinking coffee and enjoying snacks from the earlier celebration.
“Many months ago, we started to talk about what will we do with the Torah scrolls,” Anstandig said.
The decision was made to give them to organizations that lacked their own Torah. Before B’nai Israel selected recipients, Weiss reached out.
“I wrote them an email, not expecting a response, and in the email I spoke — as I always do — about the importance of day school education, and of Torah learning, and of us raising proud Jews,” she said. “I did my pitch, did my spiel, and then I actually got a call from Lou, their board president, stating that we had been chosen.”
The phone call, Weiss continued, was “better than gold, better than any donation in some ways.”
For years, Community Day School has had Torahs on site, but the scrolls were on loan from local congregations; that this Torah went from the hands of congregants to young students is a “perpetuation of the Jewish story,” Weiss said. “Our kids will learn how to read it, and touch it and kiss it. And that is amazing.”
“These children are our future, and now we are able to do something to carry on our Judaism,” Rosalie Anstandig told the Chronicle.
“On the one hand, there’s a certain sadness that the synagogue is closing — and there’s a lot of emotion attached to that — but there’s also, as we saw this morning, with all the singing and dancing, there’s a great sense of joy that the history of the congregation will continue to live on in the legacy we leave behind,” Stein said.
Seated near the rabbi, congregant Janice Greenwald recalled being married at B’nai Israel and being a member, with her husband, for almost 60 years.
Lindi Kendal mentioned her grandparents, both sets.
“My family was there at the beginning,” she said.
Whether it’s the Torahs, yahrzeit boards or other items, it’s nice seeing so much of B’nai Israel’s physical history shared, Ron Kendal said.
As the reflections continued, several B’nai Israel representatives spoke about their children and grandchildren — some of whom attend CDS — and said the Jewish day school needed its own Torah.
For Weiss, the morning spurred a memory.
Months earlier, the educator accompanied her children to the opening of the Hillel Academy Yitzy Sutofsky Campus. She recalled seeing a Torah, donated in memory of the late student, marched down Beacon Street in Squirrel Hill.
“It just struck me at that time how amazing it was to see my own children cheering for the Torah, eating candy, kissing it, dancing with it. I really wanted the kids at our school to be able to experience that,” she said.
Weiss called the May 27 celebration “beautiful and sweet,” because it enabled “children at CDS to touch a Torah, hold a Torah, eat a Hershey’s Kiss, and really understand the palpable beauty of getting something of this magnitude.”
Whether for bar and bat mitzvah preparations, day school services or other study, students and staff will use this scroll for “many, many years to come,” Weiss said.
Hours after arriving in Squirrel Hill, B’nai Israel representatives exited the school and returned to the parking lot. They spoke about the conclusion of a 113 year-old congregation.
Before getting in her car, Lindi Kendal told the Chronicle, “Every ending has a new beginning, and what better new beginning could there have been for this Torah.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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