It connects those who have tefillin — leather straps attached to a set of two small boxes containing scripture on parchment — with Jews who need them for morning prayers or other rituals.

It's called tefillin, and each black box contains scrolls that must be written by hand. Now, demand for these prayer objects has soared since the war in Israel and Gaza that erupted on October 7 ...

He agrees, we do tefillin together, take a picture,” Farro said in an interview, using the Hebrew word for the small black boxes observant Jews bind to their head and arm on weekdays ...

Inside the Tefillin boxes, worn by observant male Jews over age 13, are parchments with verses from the Torah. Tiechtel is executive director of Lawrence’s Chabad Center for Jewish Life.