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.

