Our Holocaust Torah

Witness the Jewish triumph over Nazi evil by experiencing the new Holocaust Torah now in our midst

This Torah is Scroll #1424 from the collection of the Czech Memorial Scrolls, collected after World War II, and meant to be a museum piece of an “extinguished race” according to Nazi projections. The Memorial Scrolls Trust cares for 1564 Torah scrolls that represent the lost Jewish communities of Bohemia and Moravia.

The Torah was written in 1880 and came from the town of Kyjov, Monrovia. The city of Kyjov has an extensive history of its Jewish people on its website. (Until 1918 Kyjov was part of the Austrian Empire. Between the two World Wars, and during the postwar communist era (until 1993), it was part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.)

The ANU - Museum of the Jewish People indicates that 74 Jewish families were permitted to live in Kyjov under residence restrictions for Jews. In 1830, there were 427 Jews in the community, rising to 884 in 1869. In 1900 there were 620 Jews living in the city, falling to 318 by 1930 (7% of the total population). The Museum shares:

Congregation Tikvoh Chadoshoh of Bloomfield was one of many congregations privileged to house this rescued Torah. The specially designed case in which the Torah rests was donated by Francine Thierfeld, her children and grandchildren in memory of Walter Thierfeld, a past president of Congregation Tikvoh Chadoshoh. Congregation Tikvoh Chadoshoh merged with Congregation B’nai Sholom of Newington to create B'nai Tikvoh-Sholom in 2011.

As B'nai Tikvoh-Sholom closed its doors in 2025, Beth El Temple was honored to bring this special Torah to our space. (Pictured at right: Beth El Rabbi Jim Rosen holding the Holocaust Torah next to Rabbi Debra Cantor of B'nai Tikvoh-Sholom.)

It's unclear exactly how and at whose initiation the scrolls were rescued, but the explanation that the Memorial Scrolls Trust and the Prague Jewish Museum deem most likely is that the Jews of Prague may well have managed to broker some sort of "arrangement" with the Nazi authorities to allow this process to take place. 

As a result, more than 10,000 artifacts were brought to Prague including 1,800 Torah scrolls. Once in Prague, a team of expert Jewish curators received them, cataloged them and labeled them with meticulous detail, precision and loving care. The scrolls were identified by the town they came from and, in many cases, the age of the scrolls, though the dates may have been based on the educated guesses of the curators.  

The curators witnessed the tragic scene of their own families being deported. Finally their turn came too. Most of these brave curators were eventually sent to Terezin and died there or were taken to Auschwitz Birkenau or another camp and murdered. The scrolls, however, survived. Yet they were devoid of the life of the community they served. After the war, they were transferred to the ruined  synagogue at Michle, two or three miles south of Prague, where they remained untouched until they were brought to London 20 years later.

Sources: Memorial Scrolls Trust, ANU - Museum of the Jewish People, and the Government of Kyjov