Hidden Treasure

100-year-old Torah that survived Nazis and Soviets will be read on Yom Kippur from local bimah.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN

Staff Writer

W

hen the newest Torah is removed from the
ark at the Shul-Chabad Lubavitch in West
Bloomfield this Yom Kippur, the congre-
gation will be witness to the sight of a unique, long-
enduring treasure that reflects, for those who know
its story, a deep meaning of the holiday.
'A couple of years ago, Vladimir
Sobolnitsky, a man who had been attend-
ing services at the Shut called me and
asked if I would come to his house," said
Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov. "When I got
there, he led me to a special closet. I was-
n't sure what I was going to see — but,
unbelievably, inside was a nearly 100-year-
old Torah. With awe and trepidation, he removed it
from its shelf, opened it up and told me it was time
for the Torah, which had been hidden for many
years in his father's home in the Ukraine, to have its
home once again in a synagogue."

Sobolnitsky then told the rabbi the emotional
story of his family and the Torah's travels to the
United States.
The Torah came to Sobolnitsky through his late
father, Daniel. During the Nazi invasion of the
Soviet Union, Daniel Sobolnitsky was part of the
evacuation of the Jewish community of Priluki.
During the exodus, some of the town's Torah scrolls
were hidden in walls and fields and any place where
they might be found later. With the
German retreat, Daniel Sobolnitsky
returned to Priluki, once home to 20,000
Jews, to find the town and its synagogue
destroyed.
"The Jewish people who returned want-
ed to make a shul," said Vladimir
Sobolnitsky, now of Waterford. "I was
only 4 or 5, but I remember my father told me that
he and others went from house to house and found
10 Torahs that had been hidden."
Their discovery is just the beginning of a long,
long journey for the Torah that this Yom Kippur

COIF ER
STO IT

will be read in the sanctuary of the Shut.

Brilliant And Bold

"When Khrushchev came to power in 1955, the
Russian government ordered all synagogues closed,
including the only synagogue in our city,"
Sobolnitsky said.
The town's 10 Torahs were to be taken to govern-
ment storage. •
"That's when Vladimir's father and other mem-
bers of the community came up with a daring plan,"
Rabbi Shemtov said. "They took four of the Torahs
and removed half of each one before giving them to
the government, who never realized they didn't get
complete Torahs." From the four remaining parts,
the group created two complete Torahs that were
hidden and used by the Jewish community there.
A couple of years later, Daniel Sobolnitsky
received a call from a Jewish woman he knew who
was working in the government storage house. "She
told him the roof was leaking and the rain was get-

HIDDEN TREASURE on page 76

Don Schaefer, holding Jonathan Sobolnitsky, 4,
joined by Nellie Sobolnitsky and Lana Sobolnitsky,
walk with Vladimir Sobolnitsky who carries the
newly restored Torah.

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2004

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