Friday, January 11, 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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Benyas -Kaufman
72
TO RAH INSURANCE
From the time Moses received the
Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai,
the Torah has been passed down un-
changed, in handwritten form, to gen-
erations of Jews. Because of a rela-
tively new problem, the sacred scrolls
are being passed along — not necessar-
ily down — because of theft.
No one is really sure just who the
perpetrators are. But as with any seri-
ous problem, the victims were quick to
find a solution. The Universal Torah
Registry was established in New York
almost four years ago when the Jewish
Community Relations Council banded
several Jewish groups together to
combat what was rapidly escalating to
"epidemic proportions."
According to David Pollack of the
JCRC, more than 200 Torahs were sto-
len in and around the New York and
East Coast areas in 1980-1981. Since
the inception of the Registry, that
number has been reduced to ten in the
past couple of years.
Thus far, over 500 organizations
have registered between 3,500 and
4,000 Torahs across the country. The
system will hopefully act both as a de-
terrent to thieves and as an aid to syn-
A space-age process, in
its infancy with Detroit
synagogues, protects
an age-old treasure.
BY JEFFREY GUYER
Staff Writer
agogues and law enforcement agencies
tracing stolen Torahs.
The long-term goal of the Registry
is to register and certify every Torah
scroll in the world. They already have
partial support in the United States,
Canada, Mexico, Israel and parts of
Europe.
The heinous problem of Torah
theft — legally, religiously and cul-
turally — is most easily understood in
terms of cost. In Detroit, a used Torah
sells for $5,000 to $10,000, according
to Charles Borenstein of Borenstein's
Book and Music Store in Oak Park.
New Torah scrolls cost $15,000 to
.
$30,000, Borenstein said.
Who steals Torahs and why are
Torahs stolen?
Torahs are stolen for the same
reason that anything else is stolen —
profit. When someone steals a Torah,
they may turn to a dealer with a false
explanation of origin — perhaps a de-
ceased relative left it to them. After
the scroll is appraised, the thief will
sell it to the dealer, who will then sell
it to a synagogue, not knowing it was
stolen in the first place.
According to Pollack, Torahs are
usually stolen by Jews. "You would
never really think that other Jews
would steal such an important reli-
gious object," he says, "but most cases
unfortunately seem to be inside jobs."
The problem of Torah theft has
not surfaced yet in Detroit. Area syna-
gogues have had their own problems of
theft and vandalism, but according to
many local rabbis, there is really no
problem to the extent there is in New
York.
In the photograph above, Rabbi
Elimelech Goldberg is marking one of the
Torahs at Young Israel of Southfield,
using a needle, grid and sealant from the
Universal Torah Registry.
"It (the Registry) is a very good
thing," says Rabbi A. Irving Schnip-
per, of Cong. Beth Abraham Hillel
Moses, "and we are considering apply-
ing to the Registry. We don't, however,
have a serious problem in Detroit."
Two local synagogues have
applied to the Registry and are cur-
rently in the process of marking and
certifying their Torahs for identifica-
tion. They are Young Israel of South-
field and Cong. B'nai Moshe.
Although Rabbi Elimelech
Goldberg at Young Israel agrees with
Rabbi Schnipper that there is "really
no problem with Torah theft in De-
troit," he does caution that there is
always potential. "What the Registry
tries to do is reduce that potential," he
says.
"Something like the Registry is
very important. It helps in theft pre-
, vention. It helps in the tracing of sto-
len Torahs. And it assures buyers that
they are not purchasing a stolen To-
rah. It makes good sense to register."
Each registered Torah is marked
by a newly-developed process called
"micro-perforation." A special com-
puterized grid for each Torah comes
from the Registry headquarters .in
Continued on Page 28