The Memorial Scrolls Trust

06/08/2026

FIRE, SNOW AND A BULLET HOLE
THE STORY OF TORAH MST #157

Wednesday 2nd September 19:00hrs BST on ZOOM

MST #157 Czech Memorial Scroll housed at Oak Lane Reform Synagogue is the subject of a new scholarly investigation, which provides evidence to the story of a scroll being shot at and thrown into a fire before being saved by a N**i soldier.

Sofer Dr Marc Michaels is one of the scribes who works on preserving these Scrolls on behalf of the Memorial Scrolls Trust and is a manuscript expert.

Sign up here to hear the story of the story and how his research supports an historical testimony.

05/08/2026

The Memorial Scrolls Trust is an unusually fortunate charitable organisation. With our Czech Torah allocated to communities around the world, we continue to receive enquiries for the few Torah we receive back annually when a scroll-holder closes or mergers with another scroll-hollder.

We are also fortunate to have 10 trustees, all dedicate to ensure our work continues, using our scrolls as tools not just for services, but also for education and inter-faith work.

Last but not least are our volunteers, young and old, working and retiring and including Rabbanim.

Rabbi David Maxa of Ec Chajim in Prague, Czech Republic is a great example

During his visit to Strasbourg, Rabbi David Maxa visited UJLS - Union Juive Libérale de Strasbourg, an egalitarian and Progressive Jewish community founded in 1995, and met with its chair, Elie David.
✨ What connects the two communities? Both are members of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Both communities are also privileged to care for Czech Torah scrolls from the Memorial Scrolls Trust collection, entrusted to us on long-term loan.
🏡 UJLS is the only Progressive Jewish community in northeastern France. It brings together around one hundred families, providing a warm, pluralistic and family-oriented Jewish environment while making an important contribution to Jewish cultural life, interfaith dialogue and public engagement throughout Alsace. The community also preserves the rich Alsatian liturgical tradition.
🤝 We are grateful for the warm welcome and look forward to strengthening the friendship and cooperation between these two communities.

01/08/2026

Rabbi Newman continues to offer help and support where needed. The MST appreciates all he has done over the years and continues to. Kol hakavod.

28/07/2026

CZECH TORAH SCROLL IN POTOMAC MD

In 1971, Congregation Har Shalom received one of the 1,564 Torah scrolls that were confiscated from Czechoslovakian synagogues by the N**is during the Holocaust. The Potomac shul’s three clergy leaders dedicated that Torah on July 23 and it’s now on display in a hallway at Har Shalom.

For decades, the Holocaust-era Sefer Torah was kept in storage.

“I knew that this was here, and it always kind of pained me that we didn’t have it displayed as it was meant to be,” said Har Shalom’s Rabbi Adam Raskin.

The Sefer Torah was stolen by the N**is when they invaded Czechoslovakia, plundered synagogues and killed 80% of the Jews of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia, according to Raskin.

Many of the 1,564 scrolls that were kosher or able to be restored were donated to synagogues that didn’t have a Sefer Torah. The Memorial Scrolls Trust distributed the 200 or so that couldn’t be restored to synagogues, Holocaust memorials, museums and libraries around the world.

Today, the Sefer Torah is safely displayed inside a glass case thanks to late donors Elaine and Stanford Steppa of Har Shalom.

“On Tisha B’Av afternoon, we will dedicate this beautiful new display case … so this Sefer Torah will be a testimony to the legacy of Jews who read and studied from this sacred text, and the illustrious community that existed for over a thousand years,” Raskin wrote in an Instagram post.

Har Shalom’s Cantor Max Silverstone led attendees of the dedication in song and prayer in front of the Sefer Torah on July 23.

“[We are] tremendously fortunate to have this sacred remembrance,” Raskin told Washington Jewish Week. “I look at the open scroll and I think about the wise people who read from the scroll, who celebrated Shabbat always with the scroll, who danced with it on Simchat Torah, who held it close.”

He spoke to the value of the congregation’s children passing by the historic Torah and seeing the Shema in the Torah, a core prayer they’re taught in Hebrew school. “It’s going to be very impactful,” Raskin said.

The dedication intentionally fell on Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, a day of mourning and remembrance.

“There are many people who associate Tisha B’Av with not just the destruction of the Temples that both were destroyed on this day, but also various other calamities that befell people, and it’s often tied back to dates during the Holocaust,” said Rabbi Shira Rosenblum. “There were certain moments in the Holocaust that also occurred on Tisha B’Av, so it’s very common to do programming around the Holocaust.”

It’s also more important than ever to remember this particular tragedy, according to Raskin.

“With the resurgence of antisemitism and Holocaust denial in the world, what better time than the present to have a living memorial?” Raskin asked.

After the dedication ceremony, attendees viewed a Holocaust documentary that combined hand-drawn animation with historical record.

“It’s not something you usually see in documentaries,” said Jennifer Mino-Mirowitz, Har Shalom’s marketing and communications coordinator, of the animated style.

“Among Neighbors” (2024) takes place in a rural Polish town, where Jews and their Polish neighbors attended school together and were generally friendly with one another.

Directed by Yoav Potash, the film intertwined two narratives: an elderly Polish woman who witnessed her neighbor’s family get gunned down by the N**is, and a Jewish man who survived the Holocaust as a child.

“Among Neighbors” delved into the secrecy around Poland’s treatment of its Jewish residents. While it’s well known that N**i Germany rounded up Jews into concentration camps and gas chambers, systematically wiping out generations, the filmmakers pushed Polish residents to confront their uncomfortable past: they too killed Jews six months after the end of World War II.

“It should have been a time of peace, but it wasn’t,” Yaacov Goldstein, the Holocaust survivor, said in the film.

Anyone who spoke up faced threats by the Polish government.

“The documentary is very gripping,” Mino-Mirowitz said. “It’s a love story, it’s suspense, it’s drama, but it’s also documenting a part of history that really has not been documented before. It touches on our communities and what it means to be a community and care for one another.”

“Since we show[ed] a film about the Holocaust, we figured this was an appropriate time to dedicate the Torah as well,” Rosenblum said.

Courtesy Washington Jewish Week and [email protected]

20/07/2026

We greatly appreciate the Czech Ambassador's interest in our work

Ambassador met with Andrew Keene, Vice Chairman of the Memorial Scrolls Trust! Thank you for the inspiring discussion on the incredible story and legacy of the Czechoslovak Memorial Torah scrolls in Israeli. Committed to preserving our shared Jewish heritage!

17/07/2026

WHISPERS IN THE WOOD

The Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation (FVJC) cares for two scrolls from the Memorial Scrolls Trust. Having fully restored MST #752 some years ago they now plan to work on MST #1412 that is in poor condition and only suitable for display.

While every MST scroll carries immense historical weight, MST #1412 has two special features. After being shipped to the Jewish Museum in Prague during the Shoah the catalogue number was painted on the roller identifying it as coming from Ostrava. In addition there is a uniquely personal connection, as when Rabbi Sofer Kevin Hale and the congregation closely examined the etzim, they found two beautifully carved names: Baruch and Miriam.

Historically, it was exceedingly rare for a couple’s names to be inscribed on the wooden rollers of a Torah scroll. The appearance of Baruch and Miriam on the etzim points to a profound act of dedication. It suggests the rollers may have been commissioned or donated by the couple, possibly for a wedding. These carved names transform MST #1412 from a historical artifact into an intensely intimate, tangible love story that bridges the gap between pre-Holocaust Europe and the modern Jewish diaspora.

Restoring centuries-old—and often damaged—Torah scrolls is a delicate, intensive process. The sofer (scribe) must carefully repair faded or cracked letters while preserving the original parchment and the delicate carved inscriptions on the etzim.

For Rabbi Hale and the Farmington Valley community, this restoration is an act of continuing the chain of tradition. By meticulously preserving MST #1412, they are honoring the memory of Baruch and Miriam and giving voice to the community of Ostrava from which the scroll originated.

03/07/2026

More than 60 years ago, thanks to the vision and generosity of Ralph Yablon z”l, over 1,500 Torah scrolls and other sacred scrolls that had survived the Holocaust in Prague were rescued from further loss and destruction under the Communist regime and brought to Westminster Synagogue in London.
To safeguard this extraordinary legacy, the Memorial Scrolls Trust (MST) was established as an independent charity responsible for the 1,564 Czech Memorial Scrolls. While most suitable scrolls were placed on permanent loan with Jewish communities around the world, they always remain the property of the Trust and are returned to the MST if a congregation closes or merges. Even today, we continue to place 10–15 scrolls each year in communities that will cherish and care for them.
Since the appointment of a new generation of trustees in 2015, the Trust has undergone a remarkable transformation. Today, our Board includes representatives from across the Jewish community, as well as trustees from Israel and the United States, all united by a shared commitment to preserving this sacred heritage.
Over the past decade, our trustees have traveled the world to visit communities, participate in scroll gatherings, and share the stories of the Czech Memorial Scrolls through hundreds of lectures and presentations. At the same time, we have created a museum-standard digital archive containing tens of thousands of documents, photographs, and historical records.
Today, we are proud to launch our completely redesigned website:
🌐 www.memorialscrollstrust.org
The new website offers unprecedented access to the history of the Czech Memorial Scrolls. Visitors can explore the towns and communities from which the scrolls originated, discover where they reside today, learn about the history behind each scroll, and browse our unique collection of nearly 500 historic wimples and Torah binders.
We hope this new website will become an invaluable resource for communities, educators, researchers, descendants, and anyone interested in preserving and sharing the story of Jewish life before the Holocaust—and the remarkable journey of these sacred scrolls.
We invite you to explore the site and welcome your questions and feedback. If we can be of assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us through the website.

05/06/2026

The Memorial Scrolls Trust has allocated Torah scrolls around the world. They can be found in over 1300 communities and organisations around the world, from Alaska to new Zealand and Sinagpore to Buenos Aires.

You would expect organisations with that many active connections to communicate to have a large office staff, however the MST operates purely with the help of volunteers. As a result our overheads are kept low and donations received go towards maintaining our museum and continuing with projects.

Our small but internationally recognised museum attracts an eclectic group of visitors from across the world. From local communities to those from far afield, from educators to academics to historians, as well as those just interested in the subject of all faiths and none. We have a small but continuous stream of visitors wishing to learn about how the scrolls were saved and see these historic scrolls.

We ask visitors to book in advance to make sure they are not disappointed.

05/05/2026

WHY DID SO MUCH CZECH JUDAICA SURVIVE THE SHOAH?

Whether the N**is planned to create a Museum of an Extinct Race after their winning the war, or the Jewish community persuaded the N**is, it is unlikely we shall ever know for certain, with many historians holding different opinions.

What is important is that over 200,000 Jewish artifacts were collected and shipped from 118 towns in Bohemia and Moravia to the Central Jewish Museum (now known as the Jewish Museum Prague). These items were documented and catalogued by Jewish curators and librarians, few of whom survived the war.

The MST was privileged to participate in a moving service at the Klausen synagogue in Prague to honour the memory of those murdered who had worked in the museum. Afterwards a memorial listing the names was unveiled in the old cemetery.

The event organised by the Jewish Museum Prague, led by Director Pavla Niklova. In attendance were a number of descendents of those who worked at the museum during the war.

21/04/2026

Like in many other areas, Jews arriving to Radburn NJ in the early 20th century suffered by the unwritten discrimination that was also applied to any black families wishing to purchase property in the area. As a result the Jewish history in the area is much more recent than in some other places.

By the end of the second World war the situation changed with the Jewish population increasing dramatically and Fair Lawn is one of the most densely populated Jewish areas with nearly 40% of the population of some 36,000. It is not surprising that there are MST Czech Torah with 3 different communities.

It gives great pleasure to know there was a community wide gathering on Yom Ha Shoah and my thanks to Rabbi Ronald Roth, Rabbi Emeritus - Congregation B'nai Sholom/Fair Lawn Jewish Center for sending photos.