Chabad of Mission Viejo stops traffic and warms hearts to welcome new Torah
It was a picture-perfect day culminating in 3 hours of pure joy. The ceremony celebrating the completion of a Torah at Chabad Jewish Center of Mission Viejo on March 23 represented the culmination of a longtime dream for the donor, Nessim Albagli, and a great party for about 300 people.
Albagli, known as Ness (which rhymes with “face”), said that the idea of donating a Torah has been marinating in his mind since 1996, the year he attended High Holy Day services at the Jewish Community Center. Barry Cohen, a pharmacist who was leading the services, asked Albagli to contact Eve Fein, who was then the director of the Morasha School in Rancho Santa Margarita, to borrow a Torah. She accepted his request, telling him to “treat this as if it were a newborn infant.”
Albagli, who was born in Egypt in 1944, related that his parents, Albert and Antionette Albagli, struggled with poverty in their native countries. His father, a Cairo native who was the sixth of 10 siblings, lost his father at age 13, took care of his mother and worked to support the family. He eventually got a job in the British Embassy. His mother, born in Izmir, Turkey, lost her mother at 13 and dropped out of school to take care of the family. Albagli’s parents met through a matchmaker.
The Albagli family came to the United States in 1950 but were not allowed to stay. They spent 5 ½ years in Cuba, living in Florida and New York before coming to California because of Ness’s bother’s asthma. The family remained very close. At the Torah ceremony, Albagli played a tape of his mother’s final recitation of the Shema after she clung to life for 16 days.
Losing his parents strengthened Albagli’s desire to find a community and donate a Torah. He became involved with three different congregations. On a typical Shabbat he goes to Congregation Beth Jacob in Irvine at 7:30 AM for the earliest minyan, to Congregation B’nai Israel at 9:30 AM, to Chabad of Mission Viejo at 12:30 PM, and back to Beth Jacob at the end of the day. Now all three congregations will receive a Torah.
As Rabbi Zalman Marcus of Chabad of Mission Viejo explained, “When a new Torah is welcomed, it is like a wedding celebration. We bring out a chupah, and we dance with all of the Torahs like on Simchat Torah. We get to witness the Torah being completed. The last few lines of the Torah are filled in by an expert scribe as part of the celebration.”
After the completion of the last two letters by Albagli, an exhilarating celebration began. With a police escort and a fire engine to block the street, everyone paraded with the Torah around CJC, onto Marguerite Parkway, and then back to CJC. People literally danced on the main street of the city before returning for a sumptuous feast.
Captain Jason Ivins coordinated the closure of the street, while Nathan Arelleno of the OC Fire Authority provided a fire engine escort to the revelers. Mission Viejo Mayor Bob Ruesch and Councilwoman Trish Kelly were also on hand for the festivities, along with numerous Chabad and Orthodox rabbis, rebbetzins, and congregants.
According to Rabbi Marcus, “It was magical and historic. Words, pictures, and videos cannot adequately describe the feelings.”
Albagli concluded, “We’re a small but mighty people, and the Torah has kept us together.”
Ilene Schneider has been chronicling Jewish life in Orange County for five publications since 1978. She has served as a communications consultant for a number of Jewish organizations. She is a contributing writer to Jlife Magazine.