When Hitler rose to power in Nazi Germany the goal was clear - rid the world of “The Jewish Problem”. This included, not only the destruction of millions of innocent lives, but to free the world from any remnant of Torah - the moral compass of the Jew.
In September of 1939, the Nazi’s forced their way into a small Polish town named Vengrov (wegrow). Located east of Lodz and Warsaw, Vengrov was a town famous for its rich Jewish and cultural life, scholarly rabbis and talented scribes and artisans.
On December 24, 1939, Vengrov's Jewish community, which was in existence since the mid 1500’s, was tragically destroyed.
The Nazi’s rounded up all of the Jews into the town square, and herded them into the main synagogue. As the doors were all locked, the Nazi’s set the synagogue ablaze, destroying the historic synagogue, and killing every last Jew inside.
Moments before the synagogue was set on fire, two monks from a local monastery snuck into the synagogue, approached the ark in full view of the congregation, and left with a Torah scroll in their arms. Unable to take the scroll back to the monastery, they hid the Torah by burying it.
Years later, when the monks were transferred to a monastery just outside of Kiev, they dug up the scroll and took it with them. When they arrived in Kiev, they discovered that their new monastery had a collection of over two hundred other rescued Torah scrolls from destroyed communities – to which they contributed their prized scroll.
RESTORE
Recently, two young Jewish women were backpacking through Eastern Europe with a Jewish Heritage group. They were approached by an elderly monk that invited them to see a “Biblical collection” in the nearby monastery in Kiev. Intrigued by the offer, the two women accompanied the monk to a dusty cellar in the basement of the monastery. The sight that unfolded before their eyes took them by surprise, as they found hundreds of old Torah scrolls strewn about the room.
They contacted Rabbi and Scribe Menachem Youlus of "Save-a-Torah" to work with the Monks to obtain the Torahs for the purpose of restoration, or else to give them a proper Jewish burial. Thus far, nineteen scrolls have been retrieved from this particular monastery.
The Nazis managed to silence the voices of the Jews in Vengrov, but the surviving Torah still speaks to us. Brith Sholom Beth Israel Synagogue has taken on the difficult, but worthy task of rescuing Vengrov’s Torah from the ashes of Poland.
REMEMBER
BSBI has managed to rescue the Torah with the hope and dream of restoring it to its original grandeur. As the remaining Holocaust survivors are slowly fading away form our midst, the responsibility is ours to amplify the voice of this Torah that has been quiet for too long. Its’ story and those of the Jews of Vengrov need to be told and retold to the world.
This neglected Torah was once a magnificent work of art, meticulously hand written by Rabbi Levi Levin, a well-known Torah scribe. Presently, the Torah desperately needs a much overdue restoration as, there are many letters and words that are cracked, broken or missing altogether, rendering the Torah unfit for use. This Torah, the sole survivor of the Vengrov synagogue, deserves to be restored, so that it may once again be chanted by the young and old of the next generation.
