Congregation Beth Yam dedicates renovated synagogue

Congregation Beth Yam dedicated its newly renovated synagogue on Hilton Head Island on Friday, setting aside a special place of honor for one of its most prized possessions: a Holocaust Torah.

The Torah belonged to a temple in the town of Kostel-Podivin, in what is now the Czech Republic. It was confiscated by the Nazis during World War II and sent to Prague. There the Nazis had hoped to exhibit it along with 1,564 other Torah scrolls as part of a museum filled with items stolen from the people they tried to extinguish.

They never got to build the museum.

Congregant Daniel Shapiro gave the Torah to Beth Yam as a gift in 1984.

"Jews are people of memory," Rabbi Brad Bloom said to the congregation as he stood under the inscription, "May God bless you and keep you," written upon the wall behind him.

"We invite you to dedicate, not a new Torah," he said, "but a Torah that has found a new home."

Bloom and a group of congregants, made up of Holocaust survivors and relatives, carried the Torah in its red felt cover to the glass ark at the side of the sanctuary where it will be on display for the congregation.

As the Holocaust survivors and their relatives touched the scroll, Judy Bluestone sang a traditional Yiddish lullaby, in which a mother wishes for her child's safety.

Bloom said the song was chosen to express "that this Torah is safe now, and so are we ... the Jewish people."

To begin the dedication, Bloom led the audience in shouting what he called "those favorite words, of Jew and Gentile alike:

" 'Mazel Tov!' "

As the congregants yelled their congratulations, the elders of Congregation Beth Yam cut the ribbon to celebrate the opening of the renovated, 11,000-square-foot synagogue on Meeting Street.

The facility, more than double its former size, was built almost entirely using local labor and materials, said temple president Jack Resnick. Congregants raised the $2 million to build the facility, which includes an education center, library and a larger sanctuary, to accommodate Beth Yam's more than 150 members.

Under the portico in the cold weather, Bloom explained the temple's meaning for the island.

"I think this is a spiritual ascent for our Jewish community in the Lowcountry," he said. "With this, (Beth Yam) takes its place with the rest of the congregations that contribute to the religious tapestry of the community."

After the ribbon cutting, temple members filed into the sanctuary, where they and local officials such as Hilton Head Island Town Council members John Safay, Bill Harkins, Bill Ferguson and state Sen. Tom Davis took part in a service to dedicate the building.

Sophie Miklos, who entered Auschwitz death camp at 16 and survived, was moved by the service. She emigrated to the United States with her husband, Andrew, a labor camp survivor, in 1949. Most of her family did not survive the war.

"I usually don't get this emotional," she said while seated in the temple's new library. "It was emotional because ... I am like the Torah, and I got a second chance, too."