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Spirituality

A Precious Gift

Benson Ford Jr. presents Torah to his wife at Temple Shir Shalom ceremony.

SHELLI DORFMAN'
Stqe- M-itei-

Torah is kosher, it should
be prayed over once a
year,
proposing the holi-
otivated by
day
of
Simchat Torah.
love and
The Torah was dedicated
appreciation
Oct. 22 at the syna-
of his wife,"
gogue, where the Fords
Benson Ford Jr. sought to
are members. "We know
celebrate his July 11 mar:
of no similar Torah this
riage with a special gift,
old
in active use today,"
says long-time friend
said Rabbi Schwartz.
Elliot M. Kaplan.
. Debi Weinstein, a
Temple Shir Shalom
Shir Shalom spokesper-
Rabbi Dannel Schwartz,
son, says the cask com-
who officiated at the wed-
missioned by Ford to
ding, said Ford attended
encase the Torah "is
an Introduction to Jewish
Benson
Ford
Jr.,
Francee
Ford,
crafted
and composed
Temple
Shir
Shalom
Rabbi
Dannel
Schwartz
and
congregation
president
Bunni
Studies class before mar-
c5
Lieberman with the Torah.
in
the
traditional
rying Francee Simmons,
Sephardic manner and
who is Jewish. "Midway
decorated with 12 ster-
through the class," Rabbi
ling silver panels, each
Purchased from a Torah dealer in
Schwartz said, Ford "fell in love with
• The purchaser then sold it to
containing a carving of a significant
Jerusalem at an undisclosed price,
where our Torahs came from, each
Kaplan on behalf of Ford.
religious location in Israel and one
the man recounted to Kaplan what
with its own special history, each
At just three pounds, Kaplan car-
of
the 12 Tribes of Israel. In the cen
is
known
of
its
history.
from a different place.
ried the Torah on the plane with
ter
of each panel, in solid gold, is a
Kaplan
says
he
was
told
that
a
Ford then contacted Kaplan, his
him. He had the unofficial coopera-
band
commemorating the couple's
now-deceased
Torah
dealer
discovered
tion
of.
friend and former college roommate,
the Israeli government to
wedding."
Ford has declined an
the Torah in a bakery wall 15-20
living in Kansas City, Mo. Kaplan
help him take it out of Israel.
interview, she said, as he views this
years ago in either Portugal or Spain,
remembers Ford as having "a real inter-
Although restored in the past, the
as an emotional, personal gift to his
in a building that is thought to have
est in Judaism, always curious, and
climate of the bakery wall, where it
wife,
reaffirming his love for her."
previously
been
a
private
home.
being involved in the religious tradi-
is thought to have been stored for
Rabbi
Schwartz said Benson Ford
Because
it
had
been
hidden,
the
tions" of Kaplan's family. "Very much
150 or more. years, "kept the parch-
Jr.,
grandson
of Ford Motor
dealer
told
his
wife
it
was
a
special,
ment feeling like brand new," says
in love with Francee, I think the whole
Company
founder
Henry Ford, who
secret"
Torah,
and
that
it
must
concept touched him. He says Ford
Kaplan. No more than an overwrit-
never
be
sold.
never
was
known
as
a friend of the
ing of the letters that have flaked off
told him, "Td like to find a Torah. I'd
Jews, "has adopted the Jewish people
After the dealer's death, his wife
like to have one in my house.'"
was necessary to maintain the Torah
as his people and joined the congre-
became ill and contacted the chief
as kosher.
Kaplan then set out to help Ford
gation,
and has taken the Hebrew
rabbi
of
her
Israeli
town.
He
told
locate the gift, traveling ro Israel in
A Judaica expert in Israel authen-
name
Baruch
ben Yisrael." That
her,
according
to
Kaplan,
that
she
ticated it as being "absolutely
search of a small Torah. Locating
name,
his
wife's
name and the words
was
dying
because
she
owned
both
what he describes as a 10-inch
Sephardic, written according to the
mishpacha
Ford
(family
of Ford), are
kosher
and
non-kosher
items,
and
writing style of the 1400s," with dif-
"beautiful, clean" scroll, a silver cask
included
on
the
front
of
the Torah's
instructed
her
to
sell
everything
she
was then made in Jerusalem.
ferent parchments, Kaplan says.
cask. Fl
owned, including the Torah.
Rabbi Schwartz says because the

Ell

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11/5

1999

Detroit Jewish News

67