Rabbi Moshe Perlstein (center, holding Torah) leads a procession of Orthodox Jews in front of Lubavitch Mesivta of Chicago, a Hebrew high school in West Rogers Park. The members carried older red and yellow-bound copies of the Torah, keeping them carefully covered by a fringed canopy, to the school. To culminate the celebration, the Hassids danced before entering the school building. Rabbi Perlstein compared the celebration to a wedding: the new Torah is brought into the congregational family and treated with reverence. “We’re sort of married to it,” he says, “It’s our way of life.” ©Zbigniew Bzdak / CITY 2000
Benyamin Ben Israel holds a Torah scroll after reading during Saturday service at the Beth Shalom B'Nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew temple. With Rabbi Capers C. Funnye Jr., left, and Benyamin McCabe, right, this group of Hebrews, Hebrew Israelites and Black Jews, was chartered in Illinois in 1994. ©Zbigniew Bzdak / CITY 2000
The Watt Khmer Meta Kampuchean Buddhist Society conducted its Cambodian New Year celebration at Truman College, in the Uptown neighborhood. These young ladies, adorned in traditional Cambodian clothes, danced to bless the upcoming year ©Zbigniew Bzdak / CITY 2000
In Englewood, Rev. Alex Crumble, left, and Rev. Otis Wooten, of Love of Christ Missionary Baptist Church, baptize Marneisha Toney, 9, at the Unity of Love Baptist Church. Marneisha and her family are members of the Love of Christ congregation, but their church does not have its own baptistery, so nearby Unity of Love generously shares its facilities. ©Zbigniew Bzdak / CITY 2000
