Memorial Scrolls

The Memorial Scrolls Trust, located in London, acquired over 1500 Czech Scrolls that survived the Second World War even as their communities did not. Following restoration, the Scrolls were bestowed to synagogues around the world on permanent loan to link contemporary communities with those that perished under the Nazi regime.

Temple Emanuel is fortunate to have three of these Scrolls. It’s a rare privilege – to be part of the critical work of the Memorial Scrolls Trust and to honor the memories of the people and communities who are no longer with us.

Each of our Memorial Scrolls has a unique history:

Scroll #381: Written in 1779, this Scroll came from Mlada Vozice in Bohemia. The Torah was purchased with funds donated in memory of Michael Flax, husband of Elayne. In 1982, Elayne traveled to England to pick up the Scroll and bring it to Temple Emanuel. The Scroll is unusual because the words are in brown rather than in traditional black.
Scroll #629: This is an orphan Scroll (there is no record of the town where it came from), written in approximately 1900. The Scroll was purchased and donated to Temple Emanuel by sisters Ronnie Loiederman and Mitzi Rapp in memory of their father, Charles Wasserman. It was allocated to Temple Emanuel in 1967.
Scroll #653: This scroll was written in 1880 and collected from the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague. When Jacob Levin, a member of Temple Israel in Silver Spring, passed away his children sponsored Scroll #653. Rabbi Stan Levin (Jacob’s grandson) had the Torah transferred to Temple Emanuel when Temple Israel merged with another congregation and its building sold.

Two of the Memorial Scrolls at Temple Emanuel are kept in the ark in our main sanctuary, and got new covers in 2024. Learn more about the design process here.

During the Holocaust more than 212,000 artifacts were collected from Jewish communities of Bohemia and Moravia and brought to the Jewish Museum in Prague. Following the communist coup in 1948, the Torah and other scrolls were transferred and warehoused in the ruined, damp synagogue at Michle outside Prague.

In 1963 Eric Estorick, an American art dealer living in London was in Prague buying paintings. Interested in purchasing a Torah for his father, he was taken to the Michle synagogue and offered all the scrolls. Uninterested for himself, he contacted a client, Ralph Yablon z”l who agreed to pay the total purchase price himself and arranged with Rabbi Reinhart z”l for the treasure to be donated and shipped to the Westminster Synagogue London in February 1964. Rabbi Yablon wanted no recognition and his generosity remained anonymous during his lifetime.

The Memorial Scrolls Trust (MST) was set up as an independent charity responsible for the scrolls. 1400 scrolls have been allocated on loan, never gifted or sold, to over 1300 organizations around the world. In London the MST maintains a small internationally recognized museum.

To learn more about the Memorial Scrolls Trust, visit their website:

memorialscrollstrust.org