Kranzes Dedicate “Safe Torah”

by COLlive reporter

On Sunday, September 11th, a Torah Dedication was held at Chabad of Richmond in observance of the 20th yahrzeit of the founder of Chabad in Virginia, the well known shliach, Rabbi Yankel Kranz o’h.

Hundreds of people, from every segment of the Jewish community, with overflowing crowds spilling out into the hallways, came to pay tribute to this giant of a man and one of the earlier shluchim of the Rebbe who went out in 1964 to Detroit, S. Diego and Richmond.

The Kranz family has received scores of letters and phone calls after seeing the online announcement of the event, recalling in great detail the impact that Rabbi Yankel Kranz had on their lives.

As the emotion-packed audience looked on, his son Rabbi Yossel Kranz, and the rest of the Kranz family, participated in finishing the Sefer Torah with Rabbi Moshe Klein.

The Torah was taken outside and paraded across the closed-off road with much music, fanfare and dancing. Greetings were extended by leaders of the Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Center and long time friends and supporters of Chabad.

A nephew of Rabbi Kranz from Toronto, Benjy Kranc delivered heartfelt remembrances of ‘uncle Yankel’ and what a pride and joy he was to the entire Kranc family.

In attendance were the Virginia Shluchim – from Richmond, Charlottesville, Virginia Tech, Alexandria, Fairfax, McClean and Tysons, as well as sons-in-law Rabbi Sholom Deitsch, Chabad of NOVA and Rabbi Yossi Lipsker, Chabad of the North Shore in Swampscott, MA.

Because of the 9/11 date, tribute was paid to the firemen from the next-door fire station and an 11 year old grandson of Rabbi Kranz, with the exact same name, Yaakov Noach Ben Yoel, sang the national anthem. The event was called “A Sefer Torah for a Safer World.”