Chabad of University City, long cramped inside a small office building, dedicated a new synagogue and a new Torah on Sunday, Dec. 12, in a former Bank of America building at 3813 Governor Drive. Rabbi Moishe Leider, spiritual leader of Chabad of University City, led the procession in which Shmuel Greenberg, donor of the Torah, was among the congregants who carried the scroll from the Leider home to the synagogue about a block away. In mixed seating ceremonies, Tova Pollen, president of the congregation, and various rabbis and lay leaders spoke of the work that went into making the building ready to become a synagogue and their hopes for such programs and facilities as a pre-school, a library, and a mikvah. Rabbi Baruch Shlomo Cunin, director of West Coast Chabad, who is familiar to many San Diegans as the on-air host of the annual Chabad Telethon, was a keynote speaker. Following the formal ceremonies, chairs were stacked; a portable mehitzah was pulled into place, and in their separate areas men and women circle-danced to welcome the Torah and to celebrate the new synagogue. Heritage Photo Essay by Donald H. Harrison 

ENTER THE TORAH--Rabbi Moishe Leider of chabad of University city leads procession bringing a new Torah into an equally-new synagogue in bulding formely occupied by a branch  of Bank of america.