Those Who Remember
A memorial project built from parchment, ink and memory — restoring Sifrei Torah and carrying the names of Israel’s fallen heroes into the weekly learning of the Jewish people.
Restoring Torah · Remembering Heroes
A Hero’s Memory Belongs in the Words of the Torah
Mantzichim — The Israel Memorial Project — began with a question that would not let go: after a thousand of our sons and daughters fell, where would their names live? Not only on stone, and not only on a date in the calendar, but in the words we return to every single week.
We take Sifrei Torah that have fallen silent — scrolls invalidated by damage, fading or the passage of time — and restore them letter by letter to kosher service. Each scroll is then rededicated in memory of a fallen IDF soldier and placed into the hands of a bereaved family or the community that will read from it.
Alongside the scrolls we publish Chumash HaGiborim, a five-volume Chumash in which each hero is commemorated on a page of their own — their story, divrei Torah, and a way to connect with who they were. Every page turns memorial into learning, and learning into a legacy carried by shuls and homes around the world.
Through the Circle of Remembrance, communities join the work directly: writing a letter in a scroll being completed, learning a page in a hero’s memory, and sending words of comfort to the families who carry their loss.
Chumash HaGiborim
Five volumes. One page for every hero.
Restoring
Sifrei Torah that have fallen silent — invalidated by age, damage or decay — are brought back to kosher service through hundreds of hours of certified scribal work.
Remembering
Every restoration carries a name. Chumash HaGiborim gives each fallen soldier a page of their own, with their story and divrei Torah, learned week after week.
Connecting
We bring the work to communities — schools, shuls, Yom HaZikaron programs and families — so that memory becomes something people take part in.
Yehuda Lanzkron
Yehuda Lanzkron is a master sofer (Torah scribe) whose lifelong devotion to the sacred craft of Torah restoration led to the founding of Mantzichim. Trained in the meticulous halachic art of scribing and repairing Torah scrolls, Yehuda has spent decades restoring pasul scrolls — texts invalidated by damage, decay, or the passage of time — back to kosher service.
Following the devastating attacks of October 7th, Yehuda felt called to channel his craft toward a new sacred purpose: honoring the memory of fallen IDF soldiers. He leads a team of certified scribes who painstakingly examine, repair, and rededicate each scroll, ensuring every letter, crown, and seam meets the highest halachic standard.
Under his guidance, every restored Torah scroll becomes a living tribute — placed in the hands of a bereaved family or community, carrying forward the memory and values of a hero who gave everything for the Jewish people.
Every letter, crown and seam meets the highest halachic standard.
- Founder
- Yehuda Lanzkron
- Craft
- Certified Sofrim
- Rooted in
- Israel
- Began
- October 2023
From a Silent Scroll to a Living Legacy
Mantzichim grew out of one scribe’s craft and a people’s grief — and it takes shape in scrolls, sefarim and communities joining the work one letter at a time.
Before 2023
A Sofer’s Craft
Yehuda Lanzkron spends decades as a master sofer, examining, repairing and rededicating Sifrei Torah that had been set aside as pasul — silent scrolls with no community left to read from them.
October 2023
A Calling Born of Grief
As the war begins and the names of the fallen multiply, Yehuda turns his craft toward a new purpose. Mantzichim is founded on the belief that memory must be carried, not only mourned.
2023–2024
The First Scrolls Return
Restored scrolls are certified kosher and dedicated in memory of fallen soldiers, each one placed in a community chosen together with the family — so a hero’s name is read aloud every Shabbat.
2025
Chumash HaGiborim Is Published
Five volumes, one for each book of the Torah. Every fallen soldier receives a dedicated page with their story and divrei Torah. The set is published in Hebrew and English and placed in shuls, schools and homes.
2025–2026
A Sefer Torah That Travels
A scroll is prepared with 1,152 letters intentionally left incomplete — one for each soldier lost since October 7. Students and families in communities across the country fill in the letters before it returns home to Israel.
2026
Shabbat Giborim
Together with Yakir, more than 40,000 memorial cards carrying the names and faces of 1,064 fallen heroes are shared in over 125 North American shuls at Yizkor, and Shabbat Bereishit becomes the annual beginning of a year of memory.
Today
The Circle of Remembrance
A weekly column in The Jewish Link pairs each parsha with the story of a fallen hero and a Torah teaching — and the next scroll is already in the scribe’s hands.
Every Scroll Carries a Name
A dedication is how a family turns loss into learning. A restored Sefer Torah is dedicated in the memory of a fallen soldier, and the family joins us in choosing the community or shul that will read from it — in Israel or in the Diaspora.
Dedications are also open to those who wish to honor a loved one through Torah: a scroll can be dedicated by a family, a shul, or a group of friends, with the memory carried in the reading of the parsha every week.
The same is true of our sefarim. Chumash HaGiborim was dedicated by the Brickman, Fein and Haberman families in memory of their beloved parents and grandparents, Rabbi Seymour Brickman and Devora Brickman, a”h — a dedication that now travels with every set.
Dedicate or Donate a Sefer Torah
“The strongest memorial is one that becomes part of Jewish life. We turn memory into a living legacy that will remain with Am Yisrael.”
Yehuda Lanzkron · Founder
Mantzichim in the News
Communities, schools and shuls remembering Israel’s fallen heroes. Read what has been written about the Chumash of Heroes, our restored Sifrei Torah and the Circle of Remembrance.
Help Write the Next Chapter
Mantzichim is built by people who believe a hero's memory belongs in the words of the Torah. There is a place for you in this work.