University of Alabama

Hillel Student Organization



Hillel prepares for Torah Installation Celebration on November 13

The new Bloom Hillel Center at the University of Alabama will host its culminating dedication event on Sunday November 13th, 2011 at noon with a luncheon and ceremony celebrating  the return of the recently restored Torah to Tuscaloosa.  In addition to the students and the local Jewish community, religious leaders from Alabama and other southeastern states as well as representatives from major Jewish organizations will also be invited.

Rabbi Bernard Honan, who served as Alabama Hillel’s fulltime rabbi from 1970 to 1983 will officiate with Rabbi Steven Jacobs of Temple Emanu-el in Tuscaloosa. Rabbi Honan’s son, Dr. Michael Honan, serves as a co-chair of the University of Alabama Hillel Foundation. The Torah, which has been in safe-keeping at the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School in Birmingham for the past three years while Hillel used temporary facilities, has been restored by Rabbi Honan, who is the only rabbinic Torah scribe in the Reform movement. Rabbi Steven Jacobs also serves as the holder of the Aaron Aronov Endowed Chair of Judaic Studies.

The Torah was donated over 50 years ago and is in very good condition. It will be housed inside the Ark, which features beautiful hand-wrought iron doors created by artisan blacksmith Steve Davis of Sunheart Metalworks of Tuscaloosa. Plans for the celebration include dancing the Torah into the Bloom Hillel Jewish Student Center under a chuppah, and live klezmer music. For additional information please call (205) 348-1023 or email bamahillel@gmail.com.

Click HERE for the story in Southern Jewish Living Magazine.

Rabbi Honan with the torah