RPRY gets new Torah to commemorate yartzeit of 'Shep' Gerszberg
By Enid Weiss
Jan. 18, 2007
Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva on Jan. 13 celebrated the completion of their new sefer Torah.
Festivities began at Congregation Ohr Torah on Edgemount Road in Edison as friends and relatives of Shep Gerszberg trickled in to each write one of the last few letters, take pictures, and nosh. Later the crowd grew to 500 as they marched around the block, moving the party from the Orthodox shul to the front of the yeshiva building in Edison, on the Highland Park border.
The spectacle surrounding the way his widow and four children chose to honor his memory and the 20th anniversary of his yartzeit would have overwhelmed Shephard "Shep" Gerszberg.
"He was a humble guy," Gerszberg's son Ephraim Gerszberg told The Jewish State shortly before he inscribed the last letter of the Torah. "It's a testament to my father that so many people are here. What would he say about this? He'd laugh and say, 'I'm sorry I unconvinced everyone.'"
Ephraim, his brother Seth Gerszberg, and their families live in Highland Park. Each Gerszberg son has five children, several of whom attend school at RPRY. To the Gerszbergs, donating a Torah to the school seemed like a fitting way to remember their father.
"It's what continues the Jewish people, and there's no better way to continue his memory," Ephraim said.
The Torah is the second one for the school, which means that on days when two Torah portions are read at prayer services, they won't have to roll and re-roll the scroll, explained David Stern of Edison, president of the yeshiva's board of directors.
"To have two sefer Torahs is important," he said. "It's nice for the other one to have a partner in the aron kodesh. It's a beautiful gift."
Normally the school would not have the financial means to purchase a Torah, which was handwritten by a scribe in Israel over the course of a year. Usually a Torah costs about $40,000.
"Eight of my 10 grandchildren are at this school," said Rose Gerszberg, Shep's widow who now lives in Manhattan. "He was a proactive force for Jewish education of our children and others in the community…. He was a very ethical man and saw every activity through the prism of his early education at Jewish day school. The Torah is what informed his life. This was the most alive thing, the most permanent way to convey the message of his life."
Shep Gerszberg was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany to a Polish woman who fought with the partisans during the Holocaust, blowing up bridges. His mother, whose husband and other family members were killed, later remarried. Gerszberg was raised by her and a stepfather.
They lived on a chicken farm, Rose Gerszberg explained. No matter how tight finances were on the chicken farm, Gerszberg's parents made sure to send all their children to Jewish day school, Rose said.
"We are thrilled with the decision of the heart of the Gerszberg family to have their sefer Torah gracefully adorn and beautify our yeshiva," said RPRY principal Rabbi Shraga Gross. "This beautiful sefer Torah from Yerushalayim will join the more than 500 lebidik (alive or vibrant) sifrei Torahs -- the children -- of Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva."
The school also marked the occasion during school on Jan. 11.
Gerszberg's grandson and 11-year-old namesake Shep Gerszberg is in fifth grade at RPRY. Earlier Sunday morning he visited with his cousins and close friend Jake Stern, 11, of Edison, while waiting his turn to inscribe a letter. Jake Stern is the son David Stern.
"I'm nervous -- what if I make a mistake?" said the young Shep Gerszberg. "I'm happy too. My friends and I have been talking about this" for several weeks.
Stern said, "This is a moment I'll always remember."