The Sefer Torah Recycling Network: Looking Back and Looking Forward

A short time out from the constant reporting and commentary evolving around the Expulsion which took place in mid-August, 2005 and it’s continuing, ongoing ramifications and consequences for Israel and for all Jews;

Its time to give a look back as well as a look forward at The Sefer Torah Recycling Network as the 11th Anniversary of it’s inception approaches.

In December, 1994, the project began with my attending a Singles Melave Malka in Borough Park. This trip resulted in The Birth of an Idea which became reality with the subsequent placement, over the next 11 years, of 11 Sifrei Torah in needy locations exclusively in Eretz Yisrael.

The page linked above traces the history of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network, including pictures of the locations, links to pictures from the Hachnasat Sifrei Torah celebrations and in the cases of the S’forim placed in Givat Nof Harim, Shi-rat HaYam and The Chasdei Shimrit Community Center — Israel National News TV Video coverage.

Also, we continue to seek “Philanthropic Angels” who B’Ezrat Hashem will provide us with seed funding so that The Sefer Torah Recycling Network can become an ongoing organization providing a steady stream of Sifrei Torah to many of the hundreds of needy locations throughout Eretz Yisrael and providing a steady parnossa for needy Sofrim.

The current highest priority locations in need include; Yishuv Adura where 5 of it’s members were murdered by terrorists in 2002, as well as Yeshiva Zichron David in Ramat Beit Shemesh, three Kehillot in Beitar Illit; including the Russian Kehilla/Yeshiva Ohel Avraham and Beit Knesset Mifal Hashem, the Alexander Muss Institute for Israel Education in Hod HaSharon, Timani Shuls in Katamon in Jerusalem and in Beit Shemesh and a Kehilla in Nachlaot, in Jerusalem which davens in a bomb shelter.

I ask you for your serious consideration and for your help so that this dream of being an ongoing, going-concern chessed becomes reality, that many of the hundreds of needy communities can possess their own Sifrei Torah and so that The Sefer Torah Recycling Network is no longer a “fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants” operation.

Donors in the US, please make tax deductible donation checks out to “Congregation Ahavas Torah Tzedakah Fund”, with a note on both the Memo line of the check and on the envelope “Mark Burt & Sefer Torah Recycling Network” and mail to “Congregation Ahavas Torah Tzedakah Fund”, 1425 Rhawn Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19111. Be sure to include your address. Upon request, a tax-deductible receipt for your donation will be mailed to you.

Donors in Canada, please make your tax deductible checks out to “JBRASS” (BN#864426911RR0001) and mail to; “The Sefer Torah Recycling Network”, 46 Meadowbrook Road, Apt. 6, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6B 2S6. Please mark on the envelope (and if possible attach a stick’em memo to the check) saying “Mark Burt & Sefer Torah Recycling Network.” Upon receipt, a tax-deductible receipt for your donation will be mailed to you.

In Israel, please contact me at; moshebur@actcom.co.il for donation and mailing instructions. Many thanks for your consideration. Tizke L’Mitzvot!