The crowd at the Chabad Center for Jewish Life overflowed the approximately 100 seats, filling the aisles and the entry way of the tent set up to celebrate the completion of Lawrence’s first Torah scroll Sunday morning.

Michael, right, and Jack Tamir, both of Brooklyn, N.Y. assist Rabbi Berel Sosover attach parchment containing a Torah scroll to a wooden dowel Sunday at the Chabad Center for Jewish Life, 1203 W. 19th Street. In September 2014, the Chabad Center commissioned a scribe from Israel to write the Torah scroll, which is dedicated in honor of the KU community. Writing a Torah scroll is an important aspect of the Jewish faith, dating back 3,300 years. When completed, the Torah scroll will be comprised of approximately 63 sheets of parchment and contain 304,805 individual letters. Care must be taken when writing a Torah scroll because a single error voids the entire scroll.

With the dedication of the Torah, the Jewish community here and at Kansas University has reached a new plateau, said Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, director of the Chabad Center.

“What we are experiencing right now is not just another event,” Tiechtel said. “Future generations will read and use this Torah.”

A scribe from Israel inked the final words of the scroll as part of the celebration. Various community members, including Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, Mayor Mike Amyx and Kansas Secretary of Labor Lana Gordon symbolically wrote a letter each by touching the scribe’s quill as the letter was written.

Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little addressed the crowd and said she was honored to be a part of the celebration.

“The completion of the Torah scroll links the KU Jewish Community to an unbroken chain of history dating back thousands of years,” Gray-Little said.

Following the completion of the scroll, a parade with the torah, accompanied by music, flags and torches proceeded from the Chabad Center, 1203 West 19th St., to campus. The celebration concluded with a luncheon at the Kansas Union.

The Torah was sponsored by Elliot and Sarah Tamir and dedicated in memory of Elliot’s father. The Chabad Center commissioned the scribe and hosted the event.

An authentic Torah scroll is made up of between 62 and 84 sheets of parchment containing exactly 304,805 handwritten letters. The scroll took about eight months to complete, Tiechtel said.

“It’s not the Torah in the museum that keeps our ancestors alive,” Tiechtel said. “It’s this Torah right here that will be used to celebrate Jewish life here at KU.”