California Synagogue Returning Torah Scroll To Czech Town It Was Saved From
Image by thinkstock
A synagogue in the San Francisco Bay Area is soliciting funds to restore and return a Torah scroll saved from the Nazis during their pillaging of Czechoslovakia’s Jewish communities.
The Peninsula Sinai Congregation, which holds a Torah from the town of Olomouc, explained in a GoFundMe appeal: “During the Nazi era, thousands of Torah scrolls were looted in Czechoslovakia. Over 1,500 were rescued and placed in Jewish communities across the globe. The Jews of Olomouc, a town near Prague, were all but gone by the end of World War II…. Now they have asked that their Torah be returned — the first request ever to bring one of the Czech scrolls home.”
The Conservative congregation has already pulled in $11,000 toward a fundraising goal of $38,000 — an amount needed to restore the scroll to kosher status. It’s also raising further funds to replace the scroll when it is sent back to Olomouc.
The GoFundMe page encourages donors to give in $18 increments — in keeping with the Jewish chai tradition — and suggests giving to restore specific sections of the scroll.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter, @DanielJSolomon
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
