At a recent Zoom program, sponsored by The Irving Roth Holocaust Resource Center at Temple Judea, participants were greatly inspired by a fascinating presentation by Lois Roman, a trustee of the Memorial Scrolls Trust.
Roman described how a series of miracles allowed a huge hoard of Czech Torah scrolls to survive the devastation of the Shoah (Holocaust) and stand as a testament to the communities that perished in the vanished Czech communities of Bohemia and Moravia.
She also explained the role of the Memorial Scrolls Trust in cataloging and preserving 1564 Torah scrolls from the communities in Bohemia and Moravia in order to keep the memories of those communities alive.
Through a captivating lecture, Ms. Roman detailed the journey in which these Torah scrolls were collected in 1942 from Czech communities and held for safe-keeping in Prague.
They were eventually purchased from the Czech government and transferred to the Westminster Synagogue in London in 1964. The members of the synagogue community committed to restoring as many scrolls as possible.
Believing that these Czech scrolls should be reinstituted in Jewish life as a memorial to the vanished communities which once treasured them, many of these Torah scrolls have been placed on permanent loan to synagogues throughout the world as an intimate link with individual congregations that were destroyed by the Nazis.
The rescued scrolls are a symbol of sorrow but also of hope as they are read and used, becoming part of the many communities in which they now reside. Temple Judea is fortunate to have two “Memorial Scrolls”.
In the photograph below of Temple Judea’s scrolls, the two tallest scrolls in the rear of the ark are “Memorial Scrolls”
Roman showed photos of scrolls and explained the unique style of the Czech Torahs, which included special lettering and symbols.
Many of these scrolls are hundreds of years old. Ms. Roman told of a scroll that is currently housed in the Memorial Scrolls Trust Museum in London which was recently carbon-dated to the Middle Ages.
This special program was held in observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Temple Judea is proud to offer a variety of educational programs on the Holocaust through its Irving Roth Holocaust Resource Center.
A second program with the Memorial Scrolls Trust, highlighting what remains of the Czech Jewish communities today, will be held on Zoom on March 6.
For more information about the March 6 Zoom session, The Irving Roth Holocaust Resource Center, or membership at Temple Judea, please contact the temple office at (516) 621-8049.
Temple Judea is located at 333 Searingtown Road, Manhasset, NY 11030 (exit 36 N on LIE) www.temple-judea.com
