The Story of
the Czech Memorial Trust Scroll at Hollywood Temple Beth El:
Rabbi Norbert
Weinberg explores the mystery behind scroll #249, a scroll that survived the
Holocaust
During the
Holocaust, the Jewish communities of Czechoslovakia shipped over 200,000 items including
some 1800 Torah scrolls to the Jewish Museum in Prague. Historians still argue
if this was for a museum of an extinct race to be built by the Germans after
the war, or whether somehow the Jews had convinced them to allow this to
happen.
They were saved
from further damage and loss under the communists in 1964 by Ralph Yablon z”l
who shipped them to London, where the Memorial Scrolls Trust, a charity, was
set up to supervise the allocation of scrolls to synagogues around the world where
they are used for services, memorials and education.
In 1988, Hollywood Temple Beth El at 1317 N. Crescent Heights, West Hollywood, CA, became the trustee of one of these rare Czechoslovakian Torah Scrolls, over 150 years old, that had survived the Holocaust, but was in damaged condition. The scroll was repaired and, over the course of the years, that scroll was taken out on display but not read from on an active basis, out of concern for its fragility.
In conjunction with the Iranian American Jewish Federation, who is the current owner of the historic Beth El structure, it was decided that the scroll needed a home where it could be displayed for a broader audience. Therefore, on Tuesday, October 21, Rabbi Norbert Weinberg, on behalf of Hollywood Temple Beth El, and Suzi Eiger, on behalf of the Iranian American Jewish Federation, delivered the scroll to Susan Boyer, the Los Angeles representative and US Director of the Memorial Scroll Trust.
Suzi Eiger,
Susan Boyer, and Rabbi Norbert Weinberg with the Czech Torah Scroll
Here is the
story behind that Torah Scroll
In 1988 Rabbi Glbert Kollin brought
scroll #249 from London to HTBE. It was described as being 25 inches in length.
This occurred 2 years before Rabbi Norbert Weinberg came to the position at the
congregation.
Here are Rabbi Kollin’s notes:
The Start of the Process
Rabbi Kollin flew in person to bring
the scroll to HTBE
:
What is
special about this scroll:
The Nazis invaded Bohemia and Moravia in March 1939. In
1942, the communities of Bohemia and Moravia packed their Sifrei Torah, gold
and silver filials, books and textiles and sent them to the Jewish Museum in Prague. Forty
warehouses were required to house these treasures. More than 212,000 artefacts
were brought to the Museum. Among them were about 1,800 Torah scrolls.
The Nazis’ interest in the museum most probably developed from a number of
practical problems that had to be resolved. The main reason is clear - the
museum enabled the Nazis to gain in a short period of time in-depth knowledge
about confiscated Jewish objects that were of particular value. It is possible
that the Nazis saw the museum as a special department for the collection,
documentation, storage and evaluation of confiscated Jewish property.
There was a Communist coup on 27th February 1948
which, amongst other things, took over the Jewish Museum and warehouses,
subsequently transferring some 1800 Torah Scrolls to a damp warehouse that had
once been the sixteenth century ruined synagogue
at Michle outside Prague where they remained until they came to London in
1964.
In 1963, the Artia, a company run by
the Czech Communist government approached Eric Estorick an art if he was
interested in buying some Torah and other scrolls. He approached a
client, Ralph Yablon. Ralph Yablon generously agreed to fund the purchase of
1564 scrolls that arrived in London in February 1964. Nobody was aware that the
Czechs had previously, unsuccessfully offered to sell the scrolls to the
Israeli government
Subsequently the Memorial Scrolls
Trust ,a charity, was set up and the scrolls have subsequently been allocated
on to communities and organizations around the world. The scrolls are never
sold or donated but allocated on loan. Communities that close or merge with
other Czech scroll-holders are obliged to return their scroll to the Trust.
(From the
Memorial Scrolls Trust background information)
Discovering
and Solving a Mystery
A few years ago, the head of the
Memorial Scroll Trust, Jeffrey Ohrenstein, contacted Hollywood Temple Beth El to check up
on the status of the Torah Scroll.
There was one mystery: The scroll
HTBE was given was described as on parchment 25 inches high. There is no scroll
in our collection that was larger than 23 inches.
Did the scroll vanish? That was our
mystery:
IN 2016, Sofer Rabbi Moshe Klein had
reviewed our scrolls, as noted:
We were still confused. That scroll
is only 23 inches. How can it be have been 25 inches?
In 2018 and again 2019 , another
Sofer, Rabbi Moshe Druin, came.
This is the summary of our
conversation:
“We identified
scroll with tag #4 as the one of Czech
origin, and that it is around 150 years in age, mid 1800’s, not anywhere near
the 400 years that another Sofer had told us. It would seem, from your
experience, that all of our Torah scrolls have relatively new wooden rollers,
around 30 years or so. That may be a clue as to why the scroll has no metal tag
and also , as you have recounted, it may have been trimmed to fit and existing
roller; hence, it is plausible that it was shortened from the original 25 inch
by trimming 2 inches on each end . That scroll was brought here 2 years before
I came, and it may have been repaired shortly afterwards. We have no available
records in that regard and there was at least a one year gap between the
previous Rabbi and myself. “
I was able to
finally resolve the mystery.
Among our records was a copy of a note card by
the Sofer who had first examined and described this scroll:
Indeed, a
scroll of 25 inches, a common feature of the Czech scrolls, but, in need of
much repair,
especially as the rollers themselves were broken. The scroll was repaired at some point since
its delivery to HTBE, the parchment was cut short on both sides, and affixed to
new rollers. At some point, the original brass label of the Memorial Trust was
lost.
I personally
went through the scrolls, and checked the description of the parchment and the text based on the Sofer’s notes. Those
notes matched our scroll.
We made sure the Sofer’s label was visibly affixed to
the scroll so we would never be mistaken about it
We are pleased that the scroll will be given a place
of honor in another community.
###
Here is the link to my discussion of unravelling the
mystery:
https://youtu.be/d6Jexae5caw?si=YxRyj4h1xg65Gbxp
1st 12 minutes of the video.
For information about the Memorial Scrolls Trust:
https://memorialscrollstrust.org
For information about Sofer on Site
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