A crowd of over 600 people celebrated the completion of a Torah scroll and the inauguration of a new Shul Sunday at the Chabad Israeli Center of Atlanta, Georgia, directed by shluchim Rabbi Mendy and Liba Leah Gurary and Rabbi Alexander and Esti Piekarski.
The Torah’s final letters were written by the Torah’s donors the Manoah family, Rabbis, Shluchim from throughout Atlanta, and members of the community.
Participants then joined a joyous procession of singing and dancing in the city streets accompanied by the police, who in a historic gesture closed a main traffic artery in honor of the event.
After the customary Hakafos in the Shul, participants sat down for a festive dinner.
During the event, Rabbi Gurary and his wife presented the Manoach brothers and their mother with a special gift, a replica of the new Shul which bears the name of their father, and thanked them for their support throughout the construction and their belief in the vision of the synagogue and Chabad Center for Israelis.
Head Shliach of Georgia, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok New, congratulated the community on their incredible growth and for becoming a source of light for the entire city of Atlanta.
The president of the community, Yitzchak Abigel, thanked all the donors and members of the community for their support and assistance in developing and establishing the activities of the Chabad House for Israelis in the Atlanta area and praised the shluchim’s dedicated work.
He concluded by saying that he wanted all Israelis in the Atlanta area to know that they have an Israeli home in Atlanta, where “all the programs are in Hebrew and in an Israeli atmosphere, and the only place in the city where the rabbi lectures exclusively in Hebrew,” he said.
Kol hakavod! Atlanta is really growing
Beautiful event!! What wonderful Shluchim!!