Special scrolls tell a story
'We feel privileged and honoured to be the custodian of this treasure as it evokes a sense of awe in the visitor'.
WHILE a Sefer Torah from Czechoslovakia has made quite the journey to the Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC), its significance is far from lost.
Originally belonging to the Jewish community of Valasske Mezirici, a village 300 kilometres east of Prague, in 1942 the scroll was packed and sent to Prague’s Jewish Museum for safe keeping.
In 1950, it was moved to a disused 16th century synagogue in Michle outside of Prague where it sat silently in the cold and damp with approximately 1800 fellow scrolls.
It would be 16 years before the Sefer Torah would be awoken from slumber and carefully transported alongside 1564 other Czech scrolls to Westminster Synagogue in London when it was returned to the Jewish community as part of Memorial Scrolls Trust, Czech Scrolls Museum.
Last year, the scroll found its new home at the JHC. But the connection to the Memorial Scrolls Trust remains, and recently, a representative, Sarah Hardman, visited the Sefer Torah.
“Sadly, this scroll’s original home in Valasske Mezirici no longer stands but its memory, community and life, lives on through this scroll. The Jewish Holocaust Centre and the Memorial Scrolls Trust are working together to help the Czech scroll link us to those lost,” she told The AJN.
“Today, the Valasske Mezirici scroll is always on display for visitors to see as a constant reminder of Jewish survival against all odds. The Jewish Holocaust Centre introduces all its groups, both Jewish and not, to the scroll on each visit, to see how something so beautiful and so powerful gives each of us a piece of hope.”
JHC museum director Jayne Josem concurred, explaining, “We feel privileged and honoured to be the custodian of this treasure as it evokes a sense of awe in the visitor.
“Looking closely at the beautifully inked words on the parchment, one wonders just who were the people who heard these words in the synagogue it once lived in, and what was their fate? Luckily, this holy scroll survived and can be viewed in our centre,” she said.
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