Holocaust Memorial Scroll
Have you ever wondered why one of the Torahs in our Ark is unadorned with a plain cover and no breast plate or crown even on the High Holidays? (in photograph, top row center) Here is the story.
That Torah was received by the Temple at the request of then Rabbi Martin L. Goldberg in 1968. It is on permanent loan from Memorial Scrolls Trust based in London, England. The Torah is from a synagogue in the town of Trebic in the Vysocina Region of the Czech Republic destroyed by the Nazis.
Our Torah is one of 1,564 Czech Memorial Torahs which formed part of the treasure which were saved by being collected in Prague during the Nazi occupation 1939-1945 from the desolated Jewish communities of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. These Scrolls were acquired by the London Westminster Synagogue in 1964. These scrolls were then distributed to synagogues throughout the world to be memorials to the Jewish tragedy and a reminder to future generations of that tragedy.
The conditions of the loan include leaving the Scroll unadorned. Thus, the Scroll has no breast plate, finials or crown. Its mantle or cover is plain. It must be retained in the Temple Ark and must be read at least once each year. TBZ has complied with these conditions over the years by leaving the Scroll unadorned and reading from it on Yom Kippur.
The Memorial Scrolls Trust has provided the following history of our Memorial Torah which is identified as MST Scroll # 1527. The history of this Scroll begins in Trebic through Prague to London and then to Buffalo.
Prague
The Jewish Museum in Prague was created in 1906. At the time the Nazis occupied the Bohemia and Moravia portions of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 the collection contained some 760 items. Although the German authorities immediately began to enforce racial anti-Jewish laws the day the Protectorate was established, the Jewish Museum in Prague continued to exist. In September 1941,the Nazis banned the holding of Jewish services and in December 1941 the Museum became a storehouse for items taken from the empty Prague synagogues.
Orders from the Nazi regime in 1942 required all communities in Bohema and Moravia to send their “historically valuable” items to the Jewish Museum in Prague. Some members of Prague’s Jewish community persuaded the Nazis to allow them bring other religious treasures from the deserted communities and destroyed synagogues to the comparative safety of Prague. More than 212,000 artefacts were brought to the Museum. Among them were about 1,800 Torah scrolls. Each item was meticulously recorded, labelled and entered on a card index by the Museum’s staff with a description and the place it had come from.
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 clear that the Nazis had no experts for such specialist work as the registration and evaluation of confiscated Jewish artefact were of artistic or historical 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. What the Nazi had in mind was a museum to show the artifacts of a people that according to their plans would no longer exist.
After the War
After the war some fifty Jewish congregations re-established themselves in what then was Czechoslovakia and were provided with religious artefacts, not necessarily from their own communities. When the Communists took over the government of the country in 1948, Jewish communal life was again stifled and most synagogues were closed. Their possessions went to the newly refounded Jewish Museum of Prague. The scrolls were transferred and warehoused in the ruined synagogue at Michle outside Prague where they remained until they came to London in 1964.
London
In 1963, the Czech Communist government approached an art dealer to ask if he was interested in buying some Torah and other scrolls. He approached a client, Ralph Yablon who discussed the situation with Harold Reinhart the Rabbi of the London Westminster Synagogue. It was decided to instruct a Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College, London to examine the scrolls in Prague and report on their authenticity and condition. On receipt of the report Ralph Yablon generously agreed to fund the purchase of the 1,564 scrolls that arrived in London in February 1964.
Subsequently the Memorial Scrolls Trust a charity, was set up by Westminster Synagogue and the scrolls have subsequently been loaned to communities and organizations around the world. The scrolls are never sold or donated, but areon permanent loan. Synagogues that close or merge are obliged to return their scroll to the Trust.
The full story of how the scrolls came to London can be found in the book Out of the Midst of the Fire by Philippa Bernard, available at the Memorial Scrolls Trust store in London.
Trebic
Trebic is a town in the Vysocina Region, Czech Republic located in southwest Moravia, 19 miles southeast of Jihlava and 34 miles west of Brno. The Jewish Quarter of Tribic still exists in its historical layout and was listed in 2003 in the UNESCO World Heritage List along with the Jewish cemetery.
It is one of the best preserved European Jewish ghettos and includes 123 houses and two synagogues. Because there are no longer any Jews remaining in Trebic these buildings which also includes the Town Hall, the rabbi’s house, the poorhouse, the school and the Jewish hospital, are no longer used for their original purpose.
The Jewish community of Trebic was one of the oldest in Moravia; an unconfirmed oral tradition claimed that a synagogue was built in the town in 938. There are other, similarly unconfirmed Moravian chronicles that attest to existence of a Jewish community in Trebic during the 11th century.
The first documentary evidence of the community dates to 1410 and concerns an attack on the Jews and a robbery. Later, Jewish issues were included in the municipal regulations of 1583. In 1604 the majority of the merchants in Trebic were Jews. The synagogue was built in 1639 and renovated in 1757 as well as on a number of other occasions. It was still standing in 1938. Another synagogue was built in 1707 but was sold in the 1920s. Beginning in 1727 Jews were forced to live separately from their Christian neighbors in a Jewish ghetto.
It was not until 1848 that Jews throughout the Austrian Empire, which then included Czechoslovakia, were emancipated with residence and economic restrictions removed. Trebic Jews were then permitted to live where they chose. As a result of this new freedom of movement, however, the Jewish population of Trebic began to decline as Jews left for Vienna, Brno, Jihlava and other large cities. Whereas in 1799 there were 1,770 Jews living in the Jewish quarter of Trebic, in 1850 the community numbered 1,605 and by 1890 the Jewish population dropped to 987.
Trebic’s Jewish population continued to drop during the 20th century. In 1900 there were 756 Jews living in the town, in 1921 there were 362 and in 1930 only 300. Among the notable natives of Trebic were Wolfgang Wessely (1801-1870) the first Jewish university professor in Austria, Adolf Kurrein (1846-1919) one of the first Zionist rabbis in Austria and Sigmund Taussig (1840-1910) a pioneer in the field of hydro-engineering.
In May 1942, 1,370 Jews from the Jihlava Province were assembled in Trebic and deported to the Terezin Ghetto. From there they were sent to concentration and death camps. Thirty-five Jews from Trebic survived the war.
Ten Jews from Trebic who survived the war re-established a small synagogue in the town in 1945. In 1957 a memorial tablet for the victims of the Holocaust was dedicated. Today there are no Jews living in Trebic. More information can be viewed on the website of the Trust www.memorialscrollstrust.org.
Prepared by: Ralph L. Halpern
