Recovered Torah scrolls bought by Polish village library
Two Torah scrolls, one complete and one incomplete, found
last week in Poland's Sokolow Podlaski district, have a new owner.
The Torah scrolls found Aug. 20 are believed to have
belonged to a synagogue in nearby Wegrow. They have been turned over to the
Wegrow Public Library.
The two scrolls were discovered in Sokolow Podlaski
district on Aug. 20. A local policeman was contacted by a woman who wanted to
sell the scrolls. "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 policeman brought the scrolls to Marcin Pasik,
Sokolow Commune Head. They likely were lost to the Wegrow Jewish community
during World War II. The synagogue in Wegrow was destroyed during the war and
there are no Jews living in Wegrow now. Pasik gave the scrolls to Krzysztof
Fedorczyk, the mayor of Wegrow district.
On Aug. 24, the director of the town's library,
Malgorzata Piorkowska, came to Fedorczyk's office to tell him that she bought
the scrolls from the owner.
Piorkowska said that the scrolls would be located in a
museum dedicated to the history of the Jews of Wegrow, which is soon to be
launched. Piorkowska told reporters she sees no reason to return the Torah
scrolls to the Jewish community, because in her opinion there are enough
scrolls there.
The seller of the scrolls refused to comment on the
matter. She said only that she asked the local prosecutor to examine the case
of the policeman who took the scrolls.
"We are probing the case to confirm or not if the
complaint is right or wrong. Our investigation will take up to 30 days,"
Leszek Soczewka, deputy district attorney of Sokolow Podlaski told JTA.
The woman 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.
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