PHOTO: A more than 130-year-old Torah scroll has returned to the Czech Republic from Britain
The event was sponsored by the Embassy of the State of Israel in the Czech Republic, the Capital City of Prague, the World Union for Progressive Judaism, the European Union for Progressive Judaism, the Union for Reform Judaism and Kutz Camp Alumni.
The Torah scrolls are part of the life of the Jewish community, which is why the Memorial Scrolls Trust lends them to Jewish communities and organizations around the world, with only about a thousand in the United States alone. They are never sold, they are provided for use for the duration of their holders, warned the rabbi of the Jewish community Ec chajim Prague David Maxa.
Scroll number 1052 has served in the United States for many years. For almost 50 years since 1974 at Kutz Camp, an American summer camp for young Jewish leaders. In 2019, the American Union of Reform Judaism decided to close the camp, and the leadership considered where the scroll could continue its pilgrimage.
After returning to London and making the necessary repairs, this scroll was handed over to the Ec Chajim Prague community. “I taught in this camp in 2013, they knew about me, so it occurred to them that this scroll could continue in Prague,” said Rabbi Maxa, who received the scroll from the chairman of the Memorial Scrolls Trust at a ceremony in the Patriotic Hall. of Prague’s Karolina.
According to representatives of Ec Chajim, Prague, which was founded in 2019, symbolizes the return of the scrolls to the Czech Renewal of Czech Progressive Judaism, which was the predominant pride in the Czech lands before World War II.
The Torah is one of the cornerstones of Jewish identity. It is the traditional designation of the five books of Moses, known to Christians as the Old Testament. The Torah can be considered a set of ideas, wisdom, commands that every member of the Jewish nation should follow.
The Torah is inscribed on a parchment scroll, which is fixed between two wooden wands, wrapped in a cloak and stored in the tabernacle of the synagogue. It is read from it during prayers on the Sabbath, fasting days and holidays.
Andrew Keene, Vice President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), first visited The Memorial Scrolls Trust in London to take over the Czech Torah scroll 1052, and the next day accompanied Jeffrey Ohrenstein, chairman of this amazing foundation, to Prague.
Andrew Keene was the first visitor to the Czech Scrolls Museum in Knightsbridge, London, after being closed for 18 months.
The second of the 1564 Torah scrolls collected by the Nazis during World War II from Jewish communities and sold in 1964 from what was then Czechoslovakia to Britain returned to the Czech Republic. The scroll for permanent loan was taken over from the British Foundation by the progressive Jewish community Ec chajim Prague. The first scroll in the collection was obtained four years ago by the Jewish community of Olomouc.
Scroll 1052 was written in Brno in 1890 and served the Jewish community there until 1942. At that time, the Nazi occupation authorities ordered all existing Jewish communities in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to send all their liturgical objects and books to Prague, where they were stored and cataloged in the newly emerging Central Jewish Museum (now the Jewish Museum).
At that time, over 212,000 artifacts, including 1,800 Torah scrolls, were transported to Prague. They eventually survived the war, but during the communist era they were stored in poor conditions in the synagogue in Prague’s Michle.
In 1964 it was on a truck! sent 1564 Torah scrolls to the Westminster Synagogue in London, for which they were bought by philanthropist Ralph Jablon. There the shipment attracted a lot of attention. The Memorial Scrolls Trust has been set up to manage the scrolls and has been renovating and renovating them for decades.
“Unfortunately, during the years leading up to London, identification tags stick to scrolls that list the names of the original owners, lost. With a few exceptions, their identity is lost. We refer to scrolls without a designation of origin as Orphan scrolls from an unknown city in Bohemia and Moravia, “but Memorial Scrolls Trust.
The story of obtaining the sacred scrolls from Czechoslovakia, which arrived at the Westminster Synagogue in February 1964, went down in history as a small but remarkable episode of the tragedy of European Jewry.
The Jewish Museum in Prague cordially invites all interested parties to a discussion translated into Czech with Jeffrey Ohrenstein, chairman of The Memorial Scrolls Trust, on the fascinating story of the Czech Torah scrolls, which takes place in the Maisel Synagogue in Prague on Thursday 30 September from 7 pm. Moderated by Rabbi David Maxa. Free entry.
Lenka Hoffmannová