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Congregation Beth HaTephila

An Engaging, Inclusive, Reform Congregation in the Blue Ridge Mountains



Czech Memorial Sefer Torah at CBHT

Sefer Torah #347 from the Holocaust

 

This is #347 of the 1,564 Sifre Torah rescued from Czechoslovakia after WWII and restored at Westminster Synagogue, London, England.  It is on permanent loan to Congregation Beth HaTephila from the Memorial Scrolls Trust. It is sponsored by the Joseph Dave Foundation in honor of Rabbi Sidney Unger and as a memorial to the tragedy of the Holocaust.

The following is text from the certificate that accompanied the Torah.

"The Sefer Torah number 347 ... is one of the 1564 Czech Memorial Sifre Torah which constituted part of the treasures looted by the Nazis during the 1939-1945 war from the desolated Jewish communities of Bohemia,n Moravia and Slovakia, and which had been cared for by the Czechoslovak Government for many years, and were acquired, with the good will of the Czechoslovak Government. by good friends, from Artia (the State Cultural Agency) for Westminster Synagogue, where they arrived on the 7th February 1964.

Some of the collection remain at Westminster Synagogue, a permanent memorial to the martyrs from whose synagogues they come; many of them distributed throughout the world, to be memorials everywhere to the Jewish tragedy, and to spread light as harbingers of future brotherhood on earth; and all of them bear witness to the glory of the holy Name,"

Sat, December 14 2024 13 Kislev 5785