Housing a Torah saved from the Holocaust
Temple Concord is the proud caretaker of a Czech Torah scroll on permanent loan from the Memorial Scrolls Trust of London. It is #168 of 1564 scrolls saved from the Shoah. This scroll originally belonged to the synagogue in Hermanuv Mestec in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic.
In caring for the scroll, we remember their community.
There were Jews in Hermanuv Mestec from the fifteenth century until 1939. Its synagogue was built in 1728 and reconstructed in 1870. It was closed in 1939, used as a warehouse into the 1990s, and is now an art gallery.
Safekeeping the Torah at Temple Concord.
We see our Czech Torah in its glass case just before we enter our Temple Concord sanctuary. Its small brass plaque describes its provenance. And when school is in session, our youngest members walk past this precious, resilient scroll every Shabbat morning on their way from their classes to an energetic worship service!
More information can be found at www.memorialscrolltrust.org