Displayed in Founders’ Hall at the Synagogue, Sefer Torah #262 is one of 1,564 remaining Torah scrolls once used by Jewish communities in Bohemia and Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic (Czechia).

Following instructions from the Nazis in 1942 for these communities to send their “historically valuable” items to the Jewish Museum in Prague, some Prague Jews persuaded the Nazis to allow them bring other religious treasures as well. Approximately 1,800 Sifrei Torah arrived at the Prague Jewish Museum which subsequently stored them in numerous warehouses across the city. However, in 1948, the incoming Communist government took control of the museum and warehouses and transferred the Torah scrolls to a damp former synagogue for about 16 years. In 1964, with the goodwill of the Czechoslovak government, the scrolls were sold to London’s Westminster Synagogue which assembled resources to repair and appropriately maintain these scrolls. One tenth of the collection is on display in London with many of the remainder loaned to Jewish communities throughout the world. This gives the scrolls a new life as memorials to their original Jewish communities. They also facilitate education of congregants and the public about Jewish life in Europe in the 20th Century.

Oheb’s Torah #262 was shipped to Prague September 1942 from Sedlčany located 50 km south of Prague.  However, the Jewish Museum in Prague advised the Memorial Scrolls Trust in London that this Torah could have originated from Jewish communities either in Sedlčany or in the smaller nearby towns of Kamýk nad Vltavou or Petrovice. Sedlčany has a current population of 6,800 while the others have fewer than 1,500 residents. In 1921, 88 Jews lived in Sedlčany which dropped to 50 by 1930. Jews in this town purchased a combination restaurant-hotel which became their synagogue and community center prior to World War II.

–Mark Gordon