Kenyans of Jewish faith can now practice their religion using a special Torah after the scroll arrived in the country following a three-year delay.
The scroll, which was sent to a Jewish Temple in Ol Kalou, originated from the 100-year-old Temple B'nai Israel in Massachusetts which was closed in 2019 and the building sold.
In an interview, the Temple's last President Debby Cherry noted that they sent one of their five Torah's to Kenya where one of the Rabbi in their temple had a special connection to.
"When the time came to sell the synagogue. We were very happy to know that it would continue to be a house of worship.
"The pages are written on parchment and are done by a scribe who cannot make a mistake. One error on a page and they have to start over," Cherry told NBC Boston.
She noted that she packed the holy book for transportation to Ol Kalou in 2019 destined for Kenya but the Torah got lost.
After tracking the crucial holy book, she found out that it was stuck in Amsterdam where she had made a stop.
"I just felt hugely responsible and it was incredibly frightening. Where is this Torah? And more importantly, the disappointment to the people in Kenya, because here we are telling them, 'Yes, we have this Torah.'
"They have seen it online, they have posted on Facebook and they are excited, waiting for it to happen," she added.
Later, she decided to send it via FedEx which arrived in time but was held up by customs for eight weeks before it was picked up.
"I thought, 'I'm not bringing this on a plane again. I've already done that once. This doesn't work.' So I went to FedEx," Cherry explained.
In 2022, Cherry flew to Ol Kalou to present the Torah to Kehillat Israel Kenya. The congregation reads from it every week and goes through the whole scroll in a year.
The other four Torahs from the Massachusetts Temple were sent to different Temples within the United States.
