The Nation : 5,000 March for Damaged Torah Scrolls

About 5,000 people joined a symbolic funeral march in New York for six Torah scrolls--Judaism’s most sacred objects--that were torched at a synagogue defaced with swastikas and obscenities in an arson attack in which two boys were charged. Among the marchers were Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) and Mayor Edward I. Koch. The two boys, ages 12 and 15, were charged late Saturday in the Sabbath attack on Orthodox Congregation Rabbinical Institute Sharai Torah synagogue just three days before the start of Yom Kippur--the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. The handwritten Torah scrolls were set afire in the altar area and the blaze spread, causing extensive damage to the synagogue in Brooklyn, police said. The handwritten Torahs will cost an estimated $50,000 apiece to replace, City Councilman Noach Dear said.