The plaque next to the Torah scroll says:

“This project has sought to honor those Jews and others whose lives were taken from them during the Holocaust, to honor the thirteen Torah scrolls gathered from Hermanuv Mestec, and to honor the diversity of the congregations which are now caring for these scrolls.”

Jonah and Benny are fifth and sixth grade students at KBE.

Our

Holocaust Torah

Temple Beth El

The synagogue in Hermanuv Mestec

(now a museum)

Our Holocaust torah scroll is from a town called Hermanuv Mestec (Hair-mu-noof me-e-stets) in present day Czech Republic.

The Jewish community there was founded in 1450, but there wasn’t a full minyan there until 1570. Back then, Jews were only allowed to work as peddlers, money lenders, and merchants.

The town cemetery, dating back to the 15th century.

In 1700, the Jewish quarter became its own town with a Jewish mayor, Jewish police, and a Jewish jail. In the mid 1700’s, the Jews were expelled from Prague and placed in the ghetto.

In 1848 the Jews were emancipated. They could move out of the ghetto, go to university, and take jobs that were not open to them previously. 52 years after emancipation, Jews owned 20 of the houses in the main square. The most common Jewish profession was shoemaking.

The emancipation was good for the community, but it had down sides. Many Jews moved to larger cities which greatly impacted the town’s economy.

In 1938, when Germany, England, France, and Italy signed the Munich agreement, Jews fleeing Nazi rule flooded Hermanuv Mestec and raised the Jewish population by over 50%. Later that year, all Jews in the area were subjected to Nazi Jewish restrictions and life for the Jews became very difficult.

4 years later, on December 5, 1942, 60 Jews from the town were deported to Terezin and then to Auschwitz.

2 years after the war ended, the Communists took over. After many years of following the communist rule, in 1989 the Jewish community and many others began to repair the damaged scrolls that had been brought to a warehouse in prague. There was a total of 1,564 Torah scrolls gathered from around Czechoslovakia by the Nazis. Some of the scrolls were beyond repair which meant that they were no longer kosher and could not be used. Our scroll among them.

I think having the Torah at Temple Beth El is really cool because I think it is a great thing to have in a synagogue, especially to help teach students and adults about the Holocaust. - Jonah

Our Holocaust Torah serves as a reminder that many people lost their lives during the Holocaust. We will always remember and honor those people. - Benny