Rabbi Norbert's Comments and Events: 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

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.