Our Sefer Torah, no. 607, is one of the 1,564 Czech Memorial Sifrei Torah that constituted part of the many treasures looted from the desolated Jewish communities of Bohemia and Moravia by the Nazis during World War II (1939 to 1945). After the war, the Czechoslovak government cared for the scrolls collection for many years. With the goodwill of the government, good friends acquired the collection from Artia, the state cultural agency, for safekeeping at Westminster Synagogue, a Reform congregation in London, where it arrived on February 7, 1964.
Some of the scrolls collection remains at Westminster Synagogue, which serves as a permanent memorial to the martyrs from whose synagogues they come. Many of the scrolls have been distributed throughout the world to be memorials everywhere to the Jewish Holocaust — to spread light as harbingers of future brotherhood on earth; and to bear witness to the glory of God.
Our Holocaust Torah scroll, which was part of a synagogue in B’zenz B’senz, Czechoslovakia, was obtained through the generosity of several members of the Temple Israel congregation, who paid for restoration and shipping. Temple Israel’s Rabbi Burton Levinson dedicated this special Torah scroll on February 6, 1970. The Torah was dedicated to the memory of Czechoslovakian Jews and the Christian Underground, which had hidden the scrolls from the Nazis.
Visit the Memorial Scrolls Trust website for more information.