Saved from Nazi-occupied Prague, thousands of Torah scrolls find new life through a Satmar scribe

On a typical London morning in February 1964, Satmar hassid David Eliahu Brand sought employment as a sofer, or Torah scribe. He knocked on the door of the Westminster Reform synagogue, where Ruth Shaffer, the coordinator for their Torah restoration project, answered. Brand spoke in Yiddish, inquiring if they had any Torah scrolls in need of repair.

Ruth confirmed that they had 1,564 scrolls needing restoration, a remarkable discovery that led to an unlikely partnership between the Satmar hassid and the Reform synagogue that lasted for 27 years.

Before Brand's doorstep encounter, the Jewish communities of Czechoslovakia had suffered a great loss during the Nazi occupation of Prague. In 1939, Nazi forces annexed the country, stripping Jews of their rights and banishing them from most jobs. In the aftermath, the Nazis established the Central Office of Jewish Emigration in Prague, forcing many Jews to abandon their communities and leaving behind synagogues filled with Torah scrolls.

In 1939, Dr. Karel Stein and Alfred Engel of the Prague Jewish Museum feared that the Torah scrolls would be lost forever and requested permission from Nazi authorities to centralize all Jewish ritual objects in Prague. Over 1,800 Torah scrolls and 212,000 artifacts were transferred there, despite the uncertainty of Nazi intentions. Many workers were later deported and perished, leaving the remaining scrolls in a damp, moldy warehouse for nearly 20 years.

In 1963, British art dealer Eric Estorick learned that the Czech State Agency was seeking to purchase some ritual objects stored away in Prague. Estorick approached Ralph Yablon, a philanthropist and member of the Westminster synagogue in London, who agreed to fund the purchase and shipping of the scrolls. Yablon identified which scrolls required restoration, and by early 1964, the 1,800 scrolls arrived in London.

Of the 1,800 scrolls, 1,564 were deemed usable, but the condition of many scrolls was poor due to decades of storage. Brand, along with other scribes, meticulously determined which scrolls could be restored. In 1964, Ruth Shaffer became the director of the Memorial Scrolls Trust, responsible for managing and distributing the scrolls. The story of the saved Torah scrolls highlights the resilience and determination of those who worked to preserve and restore these sacred texts.