2020 Kulanu Impact Stories – Torah Scrolls Donated to Brazil and Honduras

Dear Friends,

As 2020 comes to a close we are reflecting on Kulanu’s accomplishments this year, supporting Jewish communities around the globe. We prepared the story below on a Torah for Brazil as the first of our 2020 impact stories. Another Torah for Honduras was ready to be picked up in California, but with Covid-19 we didn’t know when they would manage to get it from the United States. We are thrilled to invite you to join us on Zoom tomorrow, Sunday, December 27 at 1 pm EST to witness the arrival of the Torah in Honduras! (Click here for the Zoom details.)

Earlier this year, one of our partner communities in Brazil received a Sefer Torah, which was donated to Kulanu by the Tree of Life Synagogue in Oil City, Pennsylvania which was closing.

Members of the Tree of Life Synagogue were comforted to see how their Torah was treasured by the Bereshit Olam Jewish community in the Recife area of Brazil. Composed of descendants of Crypto-Jews (Anusim forced to abandon Judaism in prior generations), the Bereshit Olam was a thriving Jewish community with one missing piece, a Torah.

Kulanu volunteer Hana Fried was delighted to be invited to transfer the Torah, as her own grandfather had made his home in this very same community. Leaders of the community, Carlos Maciel and Odmar Braga were overcome with emotion when they arrived at the airport in Rio de Janeiro to meet Hana.

“We were living the greatest privilege a Jew could ever have: holding and bringing a Torah to the community. Every step…was full of hope, happiness and anxiety…Hours seemed to be days and we could hardly wait for the moment to have the Torah held and embraced,” shared Odmar Pinheiro Braga and Carlos José Maciel Alves

Now, the members of Bereshit Olam no longer have to travel to access a Torah and can expand and grow their centuries-old community.

Kulanu needs your help to continue its support of our many international partner communities so that congregations like the Bereshit Olam in Brazil can not only function but thrive.

Please donate online now or send a check to Kulanu, c/o Harriet Bograd (address below) to secure Kulanu’s future! If you have already given, thank you!

Please consider making a multi-year donation or a regular monthly gift that will allow us to efficiently plan for the future.

Thank you for being part of “all of us”!

Warm regards,
Harriet
and “all of us” at Kulanu

Harriet Bograd, President
Kulanu Inc
165 West End Ave 3R
New York, NY, 10023