After a year in which fires and floods caused damage to shluchim and anash, Ezra Solomon decided to create a line of waterproof fire safety products providing the solution to every shliach’s biggest nightmare.
It’s 7 am on a Tuesday morning, and members of the *Luxbourne community are mournfully staring at the remains of their beloved shul. A fire that broke out in the middle of the night has devoured much of the beautiful structure and its holy contents. Among the destruction, they find the crowning glory of every shul – two Sifrei Torah, now burnt beyond repair.
Several months later, a shliach living along the coast of Florida has the wind knocked out of him – quite literally – when an unexpected hurricane tears through town, leaving behind a damaged roof and four feet of water in his painstakingly built Chabad center. Once again, amid the devastation lies his precious sefer torah – the $70,000 product of a three-year fundraising campaign.
“It’s not just hurricanes,” says Ezra Solomon, creator of the Tuffka brand. “Surprisingly, much of the property damage that occurs during a fire is from water! Most fire safes are not waterproof, and that can have devastating consequences when emergency sprinklers and fire hoses are involved.”
Rabbi Avraham Green, who heads the Shlichus Market product store for the Shluchim Office, says that many Chabad houses don’t have a fire safe at all, often due to a lack of funds. “When a shliach is building a beautiful new Chabad House, a fire protective safe is typically part of that process. Then there’s the shliach with a small budget, who hasn’t built a building. He may be operating out of a storefront, or rented office space, or even his house; he certainly doesn’t have thousands of dollars to afford the right kind of protection! And that’s when you hear these terrible stories of Sifrei Torah being destroyed, rachmana litzlan.”
In February of 2023, Ezra, a former sculptor and award-winning jewelry designer, put his innovative abilities and creative skills to work. He began running tests on various fabrics with the intention of creating products that would be both effective and affordable. Over the next year and a half, he worked on designs, secured trusted suppliers and manufacturers, and found solutions to the various problems that cropped up throughout the process. The result: a series of fire and waterproof protective products, specifically formed to fit Sifrei Torah, Megillahs, and Tallis & Tefillin cases.
Reb Ezra had a final trick up his sleeve: a series of fire safety mats. The first would protect furniture and tablecloths from catching fire in the event of a fallen candle or oil spill. The second would work as an extinguishing mat to stop a small flame from spiraling out of control. Once this final mission was completed, the products were sent off for professional fire testing. They passed with flying colors; the certification states that they can withstand a blaze of up to 3 hours!
“When Ezra brought these products to me, I knew we needed to make them accessible to the average shliach,” Rabbi Green said. “We’re now offering them for sale through the Shlichus Market, at a discounted rate. Just yesterday, I spoke to a shliach who purchased two of them and he said the menuchas hanefesh it affords him was itself worth the money!”
For his part, Ezra is happy to have been able to use his skills to create something that will serve a holy purpose, and that will help Yiddishe communities around the world. And, he says, he’s not stopping there.
“I have goals,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye. “I hope to be so successful that I can support many major chinuch advancements!”
For more information or to order, go to www.tuffka.com. Tuffka products are also available through the Shlichus Market, and will be sold at the kinus with a 20% discount.
*The above stories are based on true events, but no specific communities have been named or directly represented.
Thumbs up to very practical products.