300 tons of garbage searched for NYC congregant’s scrolls

FAIRPORT, N.Y. – Members of a New York City synagogue have sifted through 300 tons of garbage at an upstate landfill in an unsuccessful search for a religious item that fell into a trash can.

Dozens of synagogue members were bused upstate to search at High Acres Landfill for an embroidered bag containing a congregant’s tefillin (teh-FIHL’-ihn), which are parchment scrolls inscribed with verses from the Torah. A surveillance camera showed the bag tumbling from a cubby into a garbage can last week.

The synagogue’s rabbi contacted the Sanitation Department and was told the trash was hauled by train to the landfill in Fairport, near Rochester.

Landfill spokeswoman Nicole Fornof says Wednesday that the synagogue members have returned home after searching half the trash possibly containing the item; they may return next week.