Our community’s Czech Memorial Scroll

Posted

Jews have lived in what is now the Czech Republic for more than 1,000 years, and over that time a rich Jewish culture developed. It was centered in Prague and spread throughout the region. But after the Nazi invasion in 1939, historic congregations were shut down and their synagogues destroyed or deserted. 

In 1942, members of Prague’s Jewish community devised a way to bring the religious treasures from those deserted communities and destroyed synagogues to the comparative safety of the city. The Nazis were persuaded to accept the plan, and more than 100,000 artifacts were saved. Among them were about 1,800 Torahs. Each Torah was meticulously documented with a description of the scroll and its place of origin.

After World War II, a devout band of Jews from Prague worked to bring artifacts of all kinds to what had become the Central Jewish Museum in Prague. At the museum, they labored under appalling conditions to preserve what little remained of Jewish communities.

Some 50 congregations reestablished themselves in Czechoslovakia and were provided with religious artifacts. It was hoped that all these treasures would be protected and might one day be returned to their original homes. But after the war, the Czech Jewish community was too depleted to be able to care for the artifacts.

In 1963, Eric Estorick, a London art dealer, was offered an opportunity to purchase 1,564 scrolls from the Communist government. He contacted Ralph Yablon, who had connections to the Westminster Synagogue, in London, who in turn approached the synagogue’s rabbi, Harold Reinhart. They asked Chimen Abramsky, a Hebrew scholar, to go to Prague and examine the scrolls.

Through the generosity of Yablon, the scrolls were bought and transported to the synagogue, where they were restored and sent to synagogues and organizations around the world.

To those who were entrusted with the scrolls, they became a symbol of hope after a time of sorrow, and an intimate link with those synagogues and their congregations that were destroyed by the Nazis.

When Providence resident Lynn Glick’s grandfather, Max Huterer, passed away about 35 years ago, she and her husband, Richard, wanted to do something more than put a plaque on a wall to memorialize him. As an only grandchild, Lynn Glick was especially close to her grandparents, traveling with them to Europe in the summers.

Huterer was a Holocaust survivor who grew up in Auschwitz, Poland, and a practicing dentist. In the wake of Kristallnacht, he was taken to the Dachau Concentration Camp. Luckily, it was early in the war and the “Final Solution” had not begun. As Richard Glick explains, “Moxie [Max] wasn’t in the camp very long because Lynn’s grandmother [Irma] managed to get the necessary paperwork in place so they could emigrate to the United States in 1938.”

At the age of 50, Huterer received his dental degree for the second time, this time from the University of Pittsburgh, so he could practice here. Like many immigrants, his favorite song was “God Bless America.”

Richard Glick said, “Lynn’s grandfather was something else. We used to call him Moxie. He looked like Arthur Fiedler, was laid-back yet sophisticated, and always open to telling his story.”

When the Glicks learned about the Memorial Scrolls Trust in London, they made arrangements for a scroll to come to Rhode Island to commemorate Max Huterer’s life. Richard Glick commissioned a special case so that the Torah could be properly displayed, and it was dedicated at Torat Yisrael (then in Cranston) in 1987.

To give our community more access to the scroll, it was transferred from Torat Yisrael to the Holocaust Education Center, rededicated, and put on display when the center opened in 1995.

When the renovations to the Dwares Jewish Community Center are complete, and the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center opens in its beautiful new location, the Czech Memorial Scroll will be on display once again, serving as a reminder of the past and a look toward our future.

LEV POPLOW is a communications and development consultant. He can be reached at levpoplow@gmail.com.

Holocaust, Torah