A Trip To Remember
By Jill Cousins
Local Realtor Abby Nelson never spent much time on social media sites prior to the tragic events of October 7, 2023. That changed after the deadliest attack in Israel’s history took the lives of 1,200 innocent victims at the hands of Hamas terrorists.
Motivated by what happened on that horrific day (the holiday of Simchat Torah), Abby created an Instagram profile with the sole purpose of following accounts dedicated to Israel and Judaism. And then one day this past summer, an advertisement popped up that stopped Abby in her tracks. It was for something called The Simchat Torah Project.
The worldwide project aimed to commemorate and honor the people who lost their lives on October 7 or shortly thereafter by creating personalized Torah covers dedicated to each individual whose life was taken. The project would then bring together representatives of synagogues from all over the world to gather at the Western Wall in Jerusalem to receive their Torah covers in early September 2024.
Maitland resident Abby Nelson traveled to Israel this past September as part of The Simchat Torah Project.
A sign she couldn’t ignore
“When I saw the ad, my reaction was instantly, ‘Wow. We absolutely need to do this,’” says Abby, who lives in Maitland with husband Brian, daughter Dagny (12), son Blake (10), and their two dogs. “When things grab my attention, I feel like it’s a sign. That’s what I’m supposed to do.”
An active member of Congregation Ohev Shalom, Abby pitched the idea to Ohev’s Rabbi Geoffrey Spector, president Debby Gendzier, and executive director Tracy Hilbert. She needed an answer immediately, because the deadline to participate in the project was rapidly approaching.
“I presented it to them and told them I wanted to do it and would cover all the costs,” says Abby. “And they gave me the green light.”
Abby booked a flight to Israel on El Al Airlines for August 28, with plans to tour the area she’d be visiting with a private guide and also see some family and friends before the main event.
A family mitzvah
That’s when Abby’s story took a sad but not completely unexpected twist. Her father, Richard “Dick” Berkowitz, was hospitalized in his hometown of Savannah, Georgia, and the prognosis was not good. Abby traveled to visit him and her mother, Lynn, shortly before leaving for Israel, and she even contemplated canceling her trip.
In Jerusalem, Abby met with Orit and Avraham Baruch, parents of Adi Odeyah Baruch, whose name is on the Torah cover dedicated to her memory that Abby brought back home to Congregation Ohev Shalom.
“I knew there was a good chance he was going to continue to decline,” says Abby, “but I asked for his permission to go, and he and my whole family wanted me to go.”
Just one day after arriving in Israel, in the early morning hours of August 30, Abby’s beloved father passed away. His last words to her: “Be safe.”
“That’s when it became a huge family mitzvah to continue with the project and for me not to come back home,” says Abby. “There were always strong signs telling me I should do this.”
The Simchat Torah Project event began on a Monday morning, with three busloads of participants traveling to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where Hamas terrorists had killed 62 people and taken 19 hostages on October 7. After touring the area and hearing firsthand accounts from a resident, the group went to Ofakim, the southern town where 27 residents and six Israeli police officers were killed.
Abby and the other participants were able to see the rebuilding in the area and hear more stories about the heroes and victims of that tragic day. The group spent the next day at Machane Shura, a military base that was turned into a casualty treatment unit where victims’ bodies were identified and processed.
The power of connection
Adi Odeyah Baruch was a month away from her 23rd birthday when she died in a rocket blast on October 12, 2023. She had reenlisted in the Israel Defense Forces to help her country after the Hamas terrorist attacks five days earlier.
The Simchat Torah Project concluded at the Kotel, where participants listened to guest speakers and were presented with their customized Torah covers by the families of the victims. That’s when Abby met Orit and Avraham Baruch, parents of 22-year-old Adi Odeyah Baruch, who was killed by a rocket explosion on October 12, 2023, while serving with the Israel Defense Forces. She had reenlisted to serve her country after the Hamas attacks.
The Torah cover that Abby brought home was presented to the synagogue during a community event sponsored by the Israeli-American Council on October 6 at Congregation Ohev Shalom. It was first used for services during Kol Nidre (Yom Kippur eve) five days later. On Yom Kippur, Abby spoke to her fellow congregants at Ohev Shalom and recounted her journey. There wasn’t a dry eye in the shul.
“I wrote in my speech that meeting Adi’s parents was really meaningful to me,” says Abby. “It was a fatherless daughter embracing a daughterless father. The whole experience was heavy and emotional. But it also brought comfort to us all.”
This story was originally published in print in Winter 2024.