WWII Torah Returned to Shul

Hundreds of community members, prominent Rabbis and community leaders gathered last Sunday to celebrate the re-dedication of a Sefer Torah back to the community Shul of Krefeld, Germany.

The Sefer Torah was originally donated to Krefeld’s Jewish community in 1982 by the Baal Tefila of the Shul, Mr. Meir ben Eliyahu HaCohen Maslaton in memory of his father Eliyahu ben Meir HaCohen obm, who had passed away that year.

Mr. Maslaton had purchased the Sefer Torah from an individual who had also purchased it from a Hungarian Jew who had saved it from the Nazis when he escaped to Chile during World War II.

Last year, with the advent of a regular Shabbos morning minyan, the Rabbi of the community, Rabbi Yitzchok Mendel Wagner, decided to bring the Sefer Torah to the Chabad sofer in Antwerp Belgium, Rabbi Shuki Lipschitz, for checking.

Rabbi Lipschitz corrected all the syntax errors and also had 10 pages sent to a restoration expert in Beni Brak, Israel.

This week, a year later, the project was finished, and the Sefer Torah was returned to Krefeld, accompanied by the Sofer, the community Rabbi, and Head Chabad Rabbi of Antwerp, Harav Shabtai Slavatizky.

As is the custom, the Sefer Torah was welcomed back into the community with a Chupah procession, together with the other Sifrei Torah of the community. One of these other Sifrei Torah is kept in the Ark permanently despite it being irretrievably posul for use. This is because on Kristallnacht on November 9th 1938 a priest risked his life to save it from the burning remains of the nearby Viersen Shul where it resided.

Once the procession had moved inside the Shul, there was an emotional singing of the Ani Maamin prayer, led by Rabbi Slavatizky, accompanied by Bochurim from the Chabad Yeshiva of Frankfurt. A Seudas Mitzvah followed in the Kosher restaurant Die Kurve in Dusseldorf.

This event, which was covered extensively by the German media and the local TV station, was a tremendous Kiddush Hashem.