Among all of the Torah scrolls in our ark…
…there is one in particular with a very important story to tell.
Temple Israel is home to Czech Memorial Scroll No. 248.
We call it the Tabor Torah.
It is a Torah that has seen the worst days of the Jewish people only to survive and continue to be a part of all the joys of Jewish life that occur in our own sanctuary.
When not in use, the Tabor Torah stands among Temple's other Torahs in our sacred ark. It wears an embroidered cover, where gray barbed wire gracefully transforms into a vibrant green vine, adorned with purple and pink roses.
In the months that followed the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939,
hundreds of Jewish communities fled to the relative safety of Prague, leaving all of their synagogues and precious religious items exposed to vandalism and plunder. As deportations of Czech communities hit their peak in the spring of 1942, the small staff of the Jewish Museum of Prague along with community leaders, knowing that all of these precious items would be lost forever, devised and proposed a plan to the SS officials overseeing Prague.
They suggested an initiative to bring all of the Jewish religious items from the abandoned communities to Prague for cataloging and safekeeping of the newly created Central Jewish Museum, a name created by the Jews themselves.
By fall of 1942, thousands of religious items began pouring into Prague. The dedicated staff of the Jewish Museum continued their work day and night cataloguing these items in the desperate hope that they, or someone, would one day return to them. Very few did.
Among the many thousands of items to be brought to Prague were over 2,000 Torah Scrolls. After the war, they lay for nearly 20 years in an the old Mischle Synagogue on the outskirts of Prague. In early 1963, discussions began with the then Communist Government Arts agency about selling some of the Scrolls.
In 1964 1,564 Torah and other scrolls arrived at the Westminster Synagogue in London, having been donated to them by Ralph Yablon z'l following their purchase by him from the Czech government. The Memorial Scrolls Trust was set up as a charity responsible for caring and repairing the scrolls that have been sent to communities around the world and serve as memorials to those who were lost in the Shoah.
We believe our scroll, MST Scroll No. 248, came from the town of Tabor — its provenance — about 90 kilometers south of Prague. More accurately, it was collected in Tabor as this was a major collection point for other small surrounding communities.
Regardless of its origins, our Czech scroll survived the Holocaust through the efforts of Jews during that terrible time. It is now read from by our B’nai Mitzvah and represents our Jewish community's vitality, vibrance, and future.
— Dale Bluestein
…thousands of religious items began
pouring into Prague.
We believe our scroll…came from the town of Tabor…
1939
1942
1963
1964
Click the image to view our May 2014 issue of HaKol.
“ Our scroll lives! It breathes under the loving youthful eyes and minds of our precious
13-year-olds as they are called to the bimah to bless and chant from this scroll.
Can there be a greater tribute to the lost communities of the Shoah?”
Evidence of the Tabor Torah’s restoration is visible as lighter patches on the original klaf parchment.
—Rabbi Marcia A. ZimmermanTemple Israel’s Alvin & June Perlman Senior Rabbinic Chair
Connections Made:
Letter from a Memorial Scrolls Trust volunteer to Temple
I have been a volunteer for the Memorial Scrolls Trust since 2004 and learning of your project 20+ years ago inspired me to work with these scrolls…
I first learned of Temple Israel’s scroll from Tabor at a wedding officiated by your former Rabbi, Rabbi Edelheit, in the late 1990s. He told me that he, and members of your congregation had recently traveled to the Czech Lands with a group from the Basilica of St. Mary’s.
Catholics and Jews from Minnesota visited the site of where the synagogue in Tabor once stood. My father's cousin was a survivor from the town of Tabor. After Rabbi Edelheit and I spoke, he invited my cousin to visit and be reunited with the scroll from Tabor. At this reunion, his children learned for the very first time of his own Bar Mitzvah and how he had participated in the resistance as a young boy scout at the beginning of the war in the [Czech Republic]. It was an interfaith trip between the Basilica Of St. Mary's and Temple Israel in Minnesota that took on extra meaning for my family, because my cousin Hanus married a Catholic woman after the war. He had an interfaith family. Because of [Temple Israel], he spoke about his life before the war. His story so moved the synagogue and the church that they raised $75,000 in the name of the Jews of Tabor for an installation at the [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum] in Washington D. C. Many in our family attended.
Thank you for your care of this scroll and for remembering those who once prayed with it.
Sincerely,
Susan Boyer
[Edited for length and style.]
In May 2014, our Tabor Torah was repaired and rededicated at Temple.
Click here to read our clergy’s letter to the congregation, marking this important rededication.
Tom Lewin says he and Rhoda, his wife,
“…welcomed the opportunity to underwrite its restoration.”
Tabor Torah certificate.
Tom Lewin holds the restored Tabor Torah.
Present
Tom Lewin and Cantor Abelson with the restored Tabor Torah.
Tabor synagoge in Czech Republic.
Click the image to read this article from our May 2014 issue of HaKol.
Still curious about this Torah tale?
Click to read How Was it That the Czech Scrolls Were Saved by Michael Heppner, Research Director at Memorial Scrolls Trust for more details.
The 10 Commandments in the Tabor Torah.
Torah memorial in a cemetery. Tabor, Czech Republic.
This webpage was created as part of the Memorial Scrolls Trust Czech Torah Project.
To learn more about this project, and read stories of other rescued Czech Torahs housed in synagogues around the world, visit www.memorialscrollstrust.org