Spirituality

HIDDEN TREASURE

Cover Story

from page 75

ting on the Torahs," Vladimir Sobolnitsky said. "She knew
the government didn't care about having the Torahs, but
that my father did. She gave him one of the Torahs to keep
it safe in his home. That is the Torah that was later in my
home and is now at the Shul."
It turned out others also had Torahs in their homes in
the Ukraine, acquired from various sources and hidden
from the government. "They took turns using their houses
like a synagogue," Sobolnitsky said. "They didn't want to
go to the same house every Saturday or the government
would know there was a Torah there.

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Coming To America

Above: Rabbi Levi Kagan
of Oak Park at work
crafting the letters of a
Torah.

Left: Rabbi Kasriel
Shemtov and Howard
Schwartz watch as
Vladimir Sobolnitsky
places the Torah in the
ark at the Shul.

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Below: Rabbi Kasriel
Shemtov and Vladimir
Sobolnitsky unroll the
Torah scroll.

In 1985, seven years after Vladimir Sobolnitsky moved to
the United States, he made his one and only trip back to
the former Soviet Union. His father, still living in the
Ukraine, met him at his brother's home in Leningrad.
"That's when my father told me he still had the Torah
that used to be used in his house," Sobolnitsky said. "He
brought it with him to Leningrad. He said there was
nobody left for a minyan, and he wanted me to bring it to
the United States for people to use it."
Getting the Torah back to Michigan was a bit more
complicated than Sobolnitsky anticipated.
"Some people who knew I had the Torah told me, Don't
try to take it to America,"' he said. "But I went to the cus-
toms department anyway. They told me to go to a special
department the next day."
When he arrived, he was told the Torah could not leave
Russia, because it was the property of the government.
"When I said it is private property, they told me they need-
ed to make a call to Moscow and that I should come back
again the next day," he said.
When he returned, he was given the word: He could
take the Torah to the United States if he paid 1,000 rubles,
which then was about $250 American dollars.
"I didn't have that much money with me on my trip,"
Sobolnitsky said. "But I said OK. I would have said OK
even if it were $2,000 or $3,000. I was able to borrow the
money and took it to the airport." When he got there, his
baggage was opened, and either airport staff didn't know
what the Torah was — or they didn't care — but told him
to go ahead with it, without a charge.
"I was a little nervous then because I already filled out a
declaration saying I was traveling with no rubles, but sud-
denly I had 1,000 rubles with me," Sobolnitsky said.
"There was no place to put it, so I had to take the money
home. Then I sent it back to the person I borrowed it from
in Russia."
Afraid to risk sending it all in the same envelope, he
mailed it a little bit at a time.

Now What?

Jw

9/24
2004

76

Once the Torah was in the United States, Sobolnitsky
began to try to figure out what to do with it. "My father
told me to make sure the Torah is kosher and can be used,"
he said. "But people told me it would cost $5,000 for
someone to make sure it was, and to fix it, so I kept it in
my home for the next 17 years until I met with Rabbi
Shemtov."
During those years, Sobolnitsky's father immigrated to
the Detroit area and was a constant reminder to him of the
unused Torah.
"He came here when he was 85 and stayed until he died
10 years later," Vladimir Sobolnitsky said. "He went to shul