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As a simultaneous celebration of the synagogue's growth and memorial for a deceased community member, Congregation Ahavas Yisrael's welcoming of a new Torah on Sunday displayed the ability of Edison and Highland Park Jews to unite during both joyous and difficult times.

The "Hachnasas Sefer Torah" ceremony, for the first scroll the Orthodox synagogue can call its own, was originally intended as a merit for the refuah sheleimah (complete return to health) for local cancer patient Suri Granek. Granek died Aug. 26 at the age of 45.

While sofer (scribe) Rabbi Saul Teitelbaum completed the Torah's final letters at the home of Silvio and Chavie Taranda, attendees reminisced on Granek's life but also beamed at how far Ahavas Yisrael has come since starting out as a satellite of Highland Park's Congregation Ohav Emeth in 1988.

"The entire community really came together to make this happen," said Ahavas Yisrael's Rabbi Gedaliah Jaffe, who along with his wife donated the Torah in honor of his late father, Marshall Jaffe.

Granek led the community's Bikur Cholim organization to visit the sick, and the Chevra Kadisha to tend to the bodies of the deceased. A physical therapist by trade, she ran Leba Therapeutic Services, which provided physical, occupational, and speech therapy for Middlesex County public and private schools, and for 14 years also headed the therapy department at Camp HASC for mentally and physically handicapped children and adults.

Two years ago, Granek was also one of the founders for the Reenas Bais Yaakov school for girls in Highland Park.

"My wife Suri is a big ba'alas chesed and a very big supporter of Torah institutions throughout the community and beyond," her husband, Hesh Granek, said.

Rather than solely Ahavas Yisrael members, individuals from Ohr Torah, Ahavas Achim, Ohav Emeth, and practically every other synagogue in the area donated letters in the Torah and made other sponsorships, said Rabbi Daniel Davis, Ahavas Yisrael's second vice president and chair of the Hachnasas Sefer Torah event.

"On many levels, it's a community building event," Davis said.

Letters were sponsored in memory of those who died as recently as the last few weeks and as far back as 60 years ago, and also for happy occasions like birthdays, Davis said.

Granek's death made it "tough to put on a celebrating hat," he said, but the most important thing to keep in mind was the value of turning to the Torah as a source of strength and inspiration.

The Torah is "the source of everything that we have" -- happy and sad -- Davis said.

"If we understand that coming into Rosh Hashanah, it becomes even more meaningful," he said.

Ahavas Yisrael spent its formative years in basements of homes before eventually being able to rent its current building, a facility owned by the Taranda family. After hiring Jaffe as a full-time rabbi this year and continuing to expand its children's programs and classes for women, obtaining a Torah is the synagogue's latest milestone, President Jeff Borell said.

"From a little tiny minyan of 10, it's become a shul with 70 member [families]," Borell said.

The congregation was borrowing a Torah scroll from member Steve Josefovitz since its formation. Jaffe obtained the new Torah from Knesset Bimrom Tzion, also known as Synagogue on the Palisades, which closed in Fort Lee in mid-June, and used Ahavas Yisrael's Torah fund to pay for the necessary corrections.

Chavie Taranda said she takes pride in the congregation's diverse crowd, ranging from Hassidim to modern Orthodox and everything in between. In that way, Ahavas Yisrael lives up to its name, she said.

"It means that a lot of hard work has come to fruition," Silvio Taranda said of the celebration.

The ceremony was just one of the many mitzvot the community has performed on Granek's behalf, Jaffe noted.

While Granek was sick, community members gathered on numerous occasions to say Tehillim (Psalms) on her behalf, in addition to visiting her, giving her rides when needed, and giving charity as a merit for her recovery. The community is now putting together anecdotes about Granek for a booklet on her life, and preparing a special shiur (class) in her memory to mark the end of the Shloshim, the first 30 days of the mourning period.

"This community is unparalleled in my opinion," Hesh Granek said, adding that he still gets about 20 calls a day about Suri. "The support we were given both physical and emotional, any kind of support we needed we had, [and] more than we needed."

Though he is part of Congregation Ohr Torah, rather than Ahavas Yisrael, Granek said he strongly believes in Ahavas Yisrael's mission.

"The shul has been great and it's meeting the needs of an expanding community," he said.

Davis recalled how the Edison/Highland Park online bulletin board on Yahoo! was always filled with messages about how to help Suri Granek.

"All the time, constantly, people were thinking of her," Davis said.

Suri would always volunteer to let patients from Robert Wood Johnson hospital in New Brunswick stay at her home if they needed somewhere to go after their release, Silvio Taranda recalled.

"It was like she was the hotel for the patients at Robert Wood Johnson," he said.

Chavie Taranda said that Suri "lived the Torah that she learned." Cindy Borell, co-president of the community Bikur Cholim branch along with Suri, said that "she was doing so much for Bikur Cholim even while she was sick."

Rabbi Yaakov Luban, leader of Ohr Torah, said that Suri never hesitated to help him when he called her for any form of assistance. She was humble and never looked to get any recognition for her efforts, he said.

"She was a person who was always available any time," Luban said. "Whatever she did, she did with 100 percent of her heart and soul. And she was a doer."