Ancient prayer books find sanctuary at Yad Vashem

NAOMI LEVIN

TWO ancient prayer books have made their way out of hiding in Hungary and into Yad Vashem’s archives — via Australia.

Melbourne couple Andrew and Erica Romer were following in the footsteps of Erica’s Hungarian ancestors, when they happened across the books more than 20 years ago.

In a story that sounds like a Hollywood cliche, they met an old friend of the family who gave them the ancient machzors (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur prayer books).

Honoured to receive the responsibility of looking after the historical books, the Romers kept them safely in their home before meeting a Yad Vashem executive, who suggested they donate them to the Holocaust museum.

The tale began during the couple’s visit to Budapest in 1989, when they visited an old Orthodox synagogue in the city’s backstreets.

Andrew, a lawyer, said the shul’s caretaker looked closely at his wife, asking her if she was related to a girl he had known as a child.

“He recognised Erica’s mother in Erica,” Andrew said. “So a little relationship developed between the two of them, and he took us to a normally out-of-bounds area upstairs.

“He explained to us that every now and then, when he finds people he thinks he can trust, he takes the opportunity of squirrelling out an item or two.”

The attic was full -— floor to ceiling —- of old religious books and silverware that had been protected in the safe haven during the Holocaust, and then into Hungary’s communist era.

The Romers were not entirely sure how to respond when the caretaker asked them to accept two old books -— which were close to A3 in size, heavy and fragile.

“We took them back to the hotel and thought, ‘What are we going to do with them now?'”

Despite the risks of taking old books out of a then-communist country, the Romers wrapped them in layers of soft clothes and buried them in their luggage.

When they arrived back in Melbourne, they stored the books carefully in a cool, dry place, but decided to leave them in their original condition rather than having them restored.

It was at this time that Andrew discovered the precise vintage of the books — the Yom Kippur machzor dated back to 1703 and the Rosh Hashanah one to 1811.

Fast-forward a few decades, and Andrew got to know David Metzler, the director of Yad Vashem’s English-speaking desk, who suggested the family might like to add them to the museum’s 20,000 item collection.

“The machzorim donated to Yad Vashem by the Romer family are fine examples of¬† what appear to be prayer books that were in use in synagogues, rather than in private use,” Metzler explained.

“The care that was obviously taken to preserve these old tomes, even under the circumstances of the Nazi occupation, is clear, and we are grateful that the caretaker of the synagogue saw fit to pass them on to the Romers so that they could be preserved for the future.”

With the help of the Israeli Embassy in Canberra, particularly chef de mission Eli Yerushalmi, the Romers donated the books to the museum. Because of their delicacy, they could not just be posted or shipped.

Instead, the embassy organised for them to go in the diplomatic post. They arrived earlier this month in Jerusalem, and are now in the care of the artefacts’ department, where they are being preserved and restored.

The next step is to document them and look under the microscope to discover the books’ histories.

“The Australian Jewish community has been a source for many artfacts in Yad Vashem’s collections, both from the large survivor community in Australia, and from individuals from the Jewish and general community, who continue to see us as a place that commemorates, as well as telling the history of, the Holocaust.”

If you think you might have an artefact of interest to Yad Vashem, please contact David Metzler: david.metzler@yadvashem.org.il.