22 | JULY 6 • 2023
OUR COMMUNITY
O
n April 23, The Temple-Tifereth
Israel in Beachwood, Ohio, played
host to 19 Czech Torah scrolls as
part of a reunion and celebration of their sur-
vival of the Holocaust, their rediscovery and
repair in 1963 by the Memorial Scrolls Trust,
and how they’re now cared for by congrega-
tions and organizations all around the world,
including Oak Park, Michigan.
As part of the program, scrolls were
gathered from entities throughout Ohio,
Michigan and Pennsylvania. Participating
communities included Congregation Shomer
Emunim in Sylvania near Toledo; Knesseth
Israel Temple in Wooster; Temple Israel in
Dayton; Temple Israel in Columbus; Temple
El-Emeth in Youngstown; The Temple-
Tifereth Israel in Beachwood; Temple
Israel Ner Tamid in Mayfield Heights;
B’nai Jeshurun Congregation in Pepper
Pike; Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in
Beachwood; Gross Schechter Day School
in Pepper Pike; Temple Beth Israel-Shaare
Zedek in Lima; Suburban Temple-Kol
Ami in Beachwood; Jewish Senior Life-
Prentis Apartments in Oak Park, Michigan;
Congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh; and
Temple Sholom in Blue Ash near Cincinnati.
Some of the communities also made poster
boards describing the origins of their Czech
Torah scroll and were displayed in the temple
lobbies.
Each Torah scroll was paraded through the
sanctuary before being displayed together at
the front of the room, with each scroll being
called to the bimah by its community name
with a representative from its custodial orga-
nization. Each representative then read a line
from the Temple’s scroll as part of the pro-
gram with the help of The Temple-Tifereth
Israel clergy Rabbi Jonathan Cohen and
Cantor Kathryn Wolfe Sebo, who also sang a
song with The Temple’s orphan scroll.
Created by The Temple member Ed
Magiste, with the help of Memorial Scrolls
Trust volunteer and Fairmount Temple mem-
ber Susan Ringel, the program also featured
speeches from Cleveland State University
professor Mark Cole and Memorial Scrolls
Trust trustee Lois Roman.
THE ‘FOUR MIRACLES’
Roman described these efforts, and that of
the work MST does, as “four miracles,
” start-
ing with their collection and storage, followed
by the fact only one World War II bomb
landed in Prague leaving the synagogue they
were housed in relatively untouched even
though Czech Jewry was “decimated,
” that
they were rediscovered and sold to a London
investor, and then landed in the hands of
what would become Memorial Scrolls Trust.
As the story goes, in 1942, the Nazi officials
in charge of the Czech “Protectorate” created
the Central Jewish Museum in Prague and
shipped more than 10,000 ritual objects from
liquidated Jewish communities and syna-
gogues to the museum, including ceremonial
objects, books, pictures and embroidered
vestments. The museum curators, who
were later taken to Terezin and Auschwitz,
cataloged the collection. As part of that cat-
aloging process, approximately 1,800 Torah
scrolls were taken to the museum with the
hope they’
d be returned to their communi-
ties. After World War II, those scrolls were
taken to the abandoned Michle Synagogue in
suburban Prague. They stayed there, in disuse
in the 18th-century stone building.
Through the effort of what is now MST,
1,564 scrolls were packed and sent to London
to be restored, and in 1964, the Westminster
Synagogue was selected as trustee and the
Memorial Scrolls Committee was established
to distribute the repaired scrolls on perma-
nent loan to communities around the world.
Each scroll is numbered according to its
listing with Memorial Scrolls Trust and is also
labeled with the community it came from, if
that information is available. MST is celebrat-
Czech Torah scrolls commemorated at reunion event in Cleveland.
Reunion of Torah Scrolls
BECKY RASPE CLEVELAND JEWISH NEWS
Representatives
from participating
congregations
and organizations,
including Detroit’s
Jewish Senior
Life, march their
scrolls through the
crowd.