(Lubavitch.com) A New Zealand police detective pulled two Torah scrolls from the Chabad Center practically destroyed in last week’s Christchurch earthquake.

Detective Chris Bell was managing checkpoints set up around critically damaged areas, when he encountered Chabad’s Rabbi Shmuel Friedman who was hoping to salvage the Torah scrolls from the center. The center was marked with a red flag forbidding entry because of its precarious condition.

“Upon hearing about the Torah scrolls, their importance and value, the detective grabbed his helmet and gloves, and went inside, swiftly emerging with the two Torahs, intact,” a grateful Rabbi Mendel Goldstein, Director of Chabad of New Zealand, told Lubavitch.com.

Goldstein confirmed that the Chabad Center was completely destroyed. Only the façade appears undamaged, but in fact the interior is completely devastated. It will need to be leveled.”

With rescue efforts winding down, the body count is at 161. But 80 are still missing. “We are concerned about two Israelis that are as yet unaccounted,” said Goldstein.

Chabad of New Zealand has now turned its attention to relief efforts and is moving fast to open a soup kitchen that will provide hot meals to those still stranded. As well, Chabad will begin a meals-on-wheels program to deliver cooked meals to those still without running water and electricity.

“We are receiving large food shipments from Melbourne and Auckland, and expect to be doing this for some time,” he said, explaining that most people in the affected areas have not yet been able to return home. Tremors and aftershocks continue, further unsettling the affected areas and leaving residents vulnerable.

"Chabad of Canterbury will rebuild," said Goldstein, and is welcoming donations to help support both its relief efforts and rebuilding.

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