Chabad of Venice
Youth · The Children's Sefer Torah

Every Jewish child, one letter of their own.

There is a Torah scroll being written for the Jewish children of the world, and one letter in it can belong to your child. Tell us their Hebrew name, we buy the letter for them, and we hand them the certificate that says which letter it is.

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An open Sefer Torah, the written columns of letters visible
One letter, out of the whole scroll, written for one child.
Letter by letter

One of these belongs to a child.

The Rebbe taught that the letters of the Torah correspond to the souls of Israel — six hundred thousand of them. A scroll missing a single letter is not a Torah scroll at all, and the Jewish people is not whole while a single child is missing from it.

So in the spring of 1981 he called for a Sefer Torah written for children: one letter for each child, for every Jewish child under bar or bat mitzvah, anywhere in the world. The first scroll was written in the Old City of Jerusalem, in the Tzemach Tzedek synagogue, the one shul there that has stood intact since the day it was built. Close to three million letters have been bought for children since.

“A missing or unreadable letter in a Sefer Torah invalidates the entire Sefer Torah.”

Three steps, and it is done.

  1. 1

    Give us the child's Hebrew name

    The child's Hebrew name and their mother's Hebrew name — that is how a letter is recorded. If your child has not been named yet, write “no name” and email us the moment a name is given.

  2. 2

    We buy the letter for them

    We place the purchase in the Children's Sefer Torah on your child's behalf. Nobody has to work out a checkout page in Hebrew, and nothing arrives from abroad in your name.

  3. 3

    The certificate comes to you

    You will hear from us which letter your child received and which portion of the Torah it sits in. We post the certificate to you, or hold it here at Chabad for you to collect — whichever you choose on the form.

Two minutes

See what a letter actually is.

Worth watching with your child beside you — it is their letter, in their scroll, and this is the clearest explanation of it there is.

Video: Chabad.org. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.
A letter is one dollar

The Rebbe asked that a letter cost one symbolic dollar so that it would be affordable for every child. The real cost of a letter — the scribe, the certificate, the mailing — is about three dollars. Anything you add here goes toward that.

Who can have a letter?

Yes — these children
  • Any Jewish boy under thirteen, any Jewish girl under twelve
  • A baby, including one not yet named
  • Grandchildren, nieces, nephews — anywhere in the world
  • A child who has never set foot in Chabad of Venice
  • Each child in the family, one form each
Not in this scroll
  • A child who has already had their bar or bat mitzvah
  • Adults — this Torah is written for children
  • A second letter for a child who already has one

Past bar or bat mitzvah and sorry to have missed it? Buy the letters for the younger children in the family, and come and ask us about the other ways an adult can have a share in a Sefer Torah.

The certificate

Mailed to you, or picked up here.

The certificate is issued in Jerusalem and carries your child's Hebrew name, the letter that was given to them, and the portion of the Torah that letter sits in.

Tell us on the form which you would rather: we will put it in the post to your address, or hold it here for you to collect. Collect it and we will give it to your child by name — a Sunday at Hebrew School of the Arts, a morning at Camp Gan Israel, a Shabbat in shul.

The certificate a child receives, naming the child and the letter given to them in the Children's Sefer Torah
The certificate, as it comes from Jerusalem.
Claim the letter

One child per form.

More than one child? Fill it in for the first — the thank-you page brings you straight back for the next.

No Hebrew name yet? Claim it anyway.

Write “no name” on the form and email us as soon as a name is given — we will have the certificate written correctly. Any other question, however small, is welcome.