On October 21, de Toledo High School held a service in honor of the gift of the school’s first Torah, made possible by the Diamond family, in honor of their son, Arieh Diamond, a graduate of New Community Jewish High School who passed away on May 4th 2008.

The Diamond family chose to give the gift of Torah to honor Arieh because he is remembered as a devout lover of Judaism and one who exemplified the morals and values taught at de Toledo High School.

“When he layned (read) Torah the words had true meaning for him,” recalled his good friend, Yonatan Yares.

Alex Kaplan, 11th grade, read a D’var Torah describing Arieh to the community: “Arieh Diamond was a model of someone who was close to God. The entirety of Arieh’s life was spent bringing others closer to God.”

“Through teaching and reading Torah, being the first person to greet new people, and fighting against Lashon Harah, Arieh constantly offered his friends and community opportunities to become KaRoV,  live moral lives and better themselves,” said Alex.  

Arieh’s parents described his life after high school. They said that wherever he was, he was always the person who sought to make others around him feel comfortable. If there was someone new who did not seem to know many people, Arieh was always the first person to go and introduce himself.

This gift is important to the community because it represents the love Arieh had for his community.

New Community Jewish High School welcomed Arieh with open arms, and because of this, Arieh found his connection. He connected to the school, to his fellow students, to the community, and developed a deeper relationship with Judaism.

When asked how this gift will benefit the school community, Mr. Rosner said, “I think it’s very important for each Jewish school to have their own Torah. Having our own Torah, something that really unifies us as a community is really special. We already have a strong community culture, and now we have a way to connect the morals and values to our traditions and to our history.

“This session was important for both the family, the people who knew Arieh, and also for the community, the people who did not know Arieh. I think that for those who did not know Arieh, it was a great opportunity to personalize the Torah in a way that could help them to find more meaning in it.”

“Having our own Torah,” Mr. Rosner continued, “will allow us to read it again and again and to find new meaning in each generation.”