Nineteen years after the last German troops had surrendered in Prague, 1,564 Torah scrolls arrived in London representing hundreds of Jewish communities in Bohemia and Moravia that had been wiped out in the Holocaust. For many years, the scrolls lay unused and unattended in a Prague synagogue that had been used as a warehouse. They were then shipped across Europe, arriving at the Westminster Synagogue in London on February 7, 1964. In the years since then, the Torahs have been sent to Jewish communities in Great Britain and twenty other countries of the Western world, including West Germany, to be cherished as memorials to a tragic past but at the same time to be read and studied by a new generation of Jews; the guarantors of Jewish survival and rebirth.

In 1995, ten members of Temple Adas Israel donated $1,500 and brought one of these Torahs - MST#914 - from England. It was one of the “orphan” Torahs, that is, the town in Czechoslovakia it came from was unknown. It was on display in our Temple until the year 2011 when Rabbi Leon A. Morris, determined he would fulfill the conditions of the Memorial Scroll Trust––“When a Memorial Scroll is entrusted to a congregation on long term loan, it is on the understanding that the congregation makes a long term commitment to give this Memorial Scroll a prominent and meaningful role in the spiritual and educational life of the congregation...Each Scroll is a messenger from a martyred community that depends on its new congregation to ensure that they are remembered as individuals, and that their local Jewish heritage is cherished”––that the restoration project began.

Before this could be done, however, our 150-year old Holocaust Torah needed to be restored. The faded letters and torn parchment needed an experienced scribe – or sofer – to bring it back to a “kosher” condition so it could once again be used in worship services. This was an expensive proposition requiring a dedicated fundraising effort that involved the Temple and its extended community. With major fundraising accomplished, the restoration was completed. The re-dedication ceremony on August 24, 2012 celebrated the Scroll that now plays a prominent and meaningful part in the religious and educational life of our community.