Torah fragments resurface
A GERMAN Protestant minister has handed over segments of a long-lost Torah scroll to the city of Görlitz, 83 years after his father, a town policeman, came into possession of them.
The Torah had not been seen since Kristallnacht.
According to Pastor Uwe Mader, his father Willi Mader was a young police officer in training when he was called to the synagogue on the night of the anti-Jewish pogrom.
Uwe Mader told the Säschsiche Zeitung newspaper that his father never spoke about what happened that night, so it is unclear how the four Torah fragments actually ended up in his hands. Mader believes they must have been cut out by someone who could read the Torah and carefully selected certain passages, including the creation story and the Ten Commandments.
The fragments changed hands several times over the years of Nazi and Soviet rule before they were given to Mader in 1969 by someone who likely knew that it was his father who had first received them in 1938.
After decades of telling no one, last week Mader decided that the time had come to bring the parchments to light.
The city of Görlitz, which recently completed a refurbishment of its synagogue, said it aims to work with regional Jewish leaders to develop a plan for how to display, or potentially restore, the fragments.
Görlitz’s “New Synagogue” which dates to 1911, is the only one in Saxony to survive Kristallnacht. It was rededicated as a house of worship and space for interfaith gatherings last summer. There are reportedly some 30 Jews currently living in the city.
Some local Jewish leaders and activists were angered that the fragments had been given to the city rather than directly to representatives of the Jewish community, which would be the legal successor.
But Zsolt Balla, state rabbi of Saxony, said that he was optimistic about plans for the scrolls after speaking with the town’s mayor.
“We will be discussing strategies next week on how to proceed,” said Rabbi Balla.
JTA
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