Czech Memorial Torah Scroll

BJ is privileged to care for Czech Memorial Torah Scroll MST #516, one of 1,564 Torah scrolls rescued from Jewish communities in Bohemia and Moravia during the Holocaust. These scrolls were among the treasures looted by the Nazis during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia from 1939 to 1945.

Rabbi Kevin Hale, the sofer (scribe) who restored our scroll, dates it to approximately 1700—making it older than both B’nai Jeshurun and the United States. Remarkably, Rabbi Hale found that the parchment and ink used to write the Torah were the same types used in the writing of the U.S. Constitution.

The Torah’s Origins

Our Torah almost certainly originated in the town of Koloveč, and it is the only scroll in the collection known to have come from that community. The wooden shafts (atzei chayim) bear the name “Hutter.” Invoices from 1888 document two similar Torah mantles (ketonot) from Koloveč. These records suggest that the Torah may have belonged to Yitzhak and Reizl Hutter, a prominent and wealthy local family who owned a factory.

From Destruction to Renewal

In 1964, thanks to the generosity of Ralph Yablon, of blessed memory, 1,564 Czech Torah scrolls were brought to Westminster Synagogue in London, saving them from further destruction under the communist regime. The Memorial Scrolls Trust was subsequently established as an independent charity to care for the scrolls and approximately 500 accompanying binders and wimples (ceremonial Torah binders).

Some scrolls remain with the Memorial Scrolls Trust as a permanent memorial to the Jewish communities from which they came and the lives lost in the Holocaust. The majority have been entrusted to synagogues and Jewish communities around the world, where they continue to connect contemporary Jewish life with the communities that were destroyed.

Our Czech Memorial Torah Scroll, MST #516, is on permanent loan to B’nai Jeshurun from the Memorial Scrolls Trust in London, England.

Learn more at memorialscrollstrust.org.