Sol Nayman was born in Stoczek Wegrowki, Poland on November 5, 1935. 

At the outbreak of war in 1939, simple, everyday life in his village was turned upside down. HIs family was fortunate to escape to the forest, where they saw the Wehrmacht’s trucks and troops roll through and destroy what was in their path. From there the Naymans managed to trace a path to the east, eventually making their way to the Soviet Union. Once in the USSR, they had to deal with the wartime conditions in that nation, and they were forced into the vast reaches of Siberia, where Sol’s parents toiled away for many years.

As the war drew to a close, they made their way back to the west, to Ukraine and eventually Germany itself, where they found themselves in the Wetzlar DP Camp. Here life slowly came back to a state of relative normalcy, and after several years the family managed to emigrate to Canada.

Sol told me how he was named in honor of his Maternal grandfather David Shlomo Rosenberg, a scribe, making this project emotional and meaningful for him on a whole other level.

When referring to the Torah, Sol said “It began with burning books, Holy objects, and Torah Scrolls, and ended by burning Jews. Rewriting this Torah brings back that past and shows we can never be defeated.”

“When I speak to students I tell them that we don’t really understand how critically important and amazing the creation of the Torah is. This handwritten scroll, made of 245 columns, 304,805 letters, each letter must be perfect or the Torah cannot be used.”

Truly, nothing could be more perfect than having Holy Survivors like Sol helping to fill the missing part of this Holy Torah, saved from the burning of the Holocaust by a Righteous Gentile.

Together we wrote 4 letters in honor of his Grandfather, whose name he bears and in memory of his beloved granddaughter Candace Miriam Nayman, of blessed memory, who tragically passed away.