Two Torah scrolls buried under the rubble of the Chabad house in Christchurch, New Zealand, have been saved.
Rabbi Shmuel Friedman, who escaped from the Jewish outreach center with an Israeli backpacker when a devastating earthquake struck Feb. 22, said when a police detective “heard of the importance of the Torah to Jews …, he put on his helmet and gloves and went in himself.”
“For me, it was extremely emotional,” said Friedman, who 24 hours earlier had said Kaddish for two Israelis before their bodies were repatriated. “It was such a beautiful scene when I saw the detective coming out from the Chabad house. — jta