Europe

The rescue of 1,564 Czech Scrolls and donated in 1964, is a story that Donal Savage told us with incredible passion and sincerity. These Torahs were acquired by the Nazis with the intent of creating a museum to the "extinct Jewish race”. Donal is one of two people that have taken on the mission to restore, preserve and distribute these precious Totah scrolls an important part of Jewish history, to Synagogues around the World. It links many Congregations (including all those we have belonged to in the last 30 years) to those Congregations destroyed by the Nazis, as they still live on and get to be used. The shelves which once held 1564 scrolls have less than 200 at any one point in time. The 1400 scrolls which are lent out worldwide are utilized for generations for prayer and teaching and then returned to the Trust to redistribute when they combine with other Congregations that may have one.

We were able to see and hear about the remaining scrolls, many which are beyond repair to make them Kosher as well as Torah Binders, dating from the 18th century. The history goes back to Jews have lived in Bohemia and Moravia (Czech Republic); for more than a thousand years, in European countries that were alternatively welcomed and expelled over the centuries. After the war, the Communist government attempted to sell the scrolls to the Israeli government. In 1963, the Artia, a company run by the Czech Communist government approached Eric Estorick an art dealer who frequently visited Prague to buy paintings for his Grosvenor Gallery in London, to offer his client, Ralph Yablon, the Torahs for sale. He purchased them and then donated them to the Rabbi of the Westminster Synagogue.Read more