Temple takes new look at Czech memorial scroll

The Memorial Scrolls Trust in Westminster, England, recently checked in with Temple Israel on its Czech Memorial Torah, prompting United Hebrew Congregation Terre Haute members to take another look at the historic scroll.

Specifically, the trust asked for new photographs of the small plaque attached inside one of the Torah’s rollers, and images of the Ten Commandments as they appear in the scroll.

The Torah originated in 1880 and served the congregation in Pardubice, Czech Republic, until curators desperate to save Jewish artifacts from the Nazis sent the Torah to Prague. The Czech Torah found a home in 1964 at Westminster Synagogue and in 1988 arrived on permanent loan at Temple Israel.

Here, the Czech Torah rests in the ark, wrapped in fabric bindings, before Scott Skillman removes it for display:

Memorial Scrolls Trust document tells the Pardubice scroll’s history.

The Pardubice scroll at right in Temple Israel ark.

Bindings contain the Pardubice scroll .

A decorative cover adorns the Temple’s primary Torah.

Wartime Czech curators catalogued the Pardubice scroll as “32379”.

Prague curators attached this tag to the Pardubice scroll.

Pardubice scroll tag in an earlier state.

Artistic filters capture Scott Skillman with the Pardubice scroll.

Student Rabbi Aaron Rozovsky reveals the Memorial Scrolls Trust plaque attached to the Pardubice scroll and traces an impression. The pointer indicates the Ten Commandments as they appear in Parshah Yitro, Exodus 20, Verses 1-17. Rabbi Aaron then returns the Torah to the ark.

The Memorial Scrolls Trust applied the designation MST#845 to the Pardubice scroll.

Images display the dome above the Temple Israel bimah and stained glass that decorates the sanctuary walls inside Temple Israel.