Torah scrolls returned to Polish village
Two Torah scrolls, one complete and one incomplete, were
found in Poland's Sokolow Podlaski district.
The Torah scrolls found Aug. 20 are believed to have
belonged to a synagogue in nearby Wegrow.
A local policeman brought the scrolls to the municipal
offices in Sokolow and gave them to Marcin Pasik, Sokolow Commune Head.
"The policeman is known in the local community because of his interest in
history. That's why he was contacted by a woman living in a nearby village. She
asked him to help her sell the old scrolls. The policeman thought, however,
that such a precious treasure should go to a museum," Slawomir Tomaszewski,
Sokolow police press officer, told JTA.
The woman wants to remain anonymous. She first claimed
that her father had saved the scrolls from a burning synagogue in Wegrow.
Later, she said that the Torah scrolls were brought to her father by a Jewish
friend who asked him to hide them during the war.
The woman did not want to relinquish the scrolls for
free. She reportedly has already tried to sell them to some people in Sokolow
county, but her asking price was too high.
Since the Torah scrolls are likely from Wegrow, Pasik
gave them to Krzysztof Fedorczyk, the mayor of Wegrow district, on Tuesday. The
mayor placed the scrolls in a safe. "We wondered for a long time about
what to do with them. Our lawyer might tell us what the next steps should be.
It's all quite complicated," said Fedorczyk.
"This Torah
scroll apparently was lost to the Jewish people during World War II,"
Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich told JTA. "The Torah was written so
that it should be used during Jewish religious services. The appropriate home
both morally and historically would be with a living Jewish community in
Poland."
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