Saved from Vienna

Holiest object in a synagogue is its Torah (scroll of the Jewish Law). The Torah, consisting of the first five books of the Old Testament, is God's covenant with Moses and his people. The countless minute provisions of the Law, and the later commentaries which Jews say "put fences" around it, gave Jewry a complete guide to religious, social, physical behavior. Thus the Torah, in its ark or shrine, is the focal point in the most solemn synagogue services.

A Torah is made of parchment (calf or goat), hand-written by a scribe who must perform his task with the greatest purity of spirit and body, often taking a bath before writing. If anyone drops the Torah during a service, everyone present must fast for one day. Though it may be carefully uncovered, the scroll must not be touched by hand.

There are so many ways in which a Torah may be befouled, especially by goyim (gentiles), that few in the synagogues of Germany escaped desecration during the destruction last November. One of the few was in Manhattan last week, brought there by a refugee chemist named Heinrich Goldschmiedt, who salvaged it from Vienna's oldest synagogue before that edifice, like the others, was fired. The Vienna Jewish community instructed Chemist Goldschmiedt to present the Torah to an orthodox synagogue in the U. S. Without such instruction, the Torah would have been considered stolen property by good Jews. Mr. Goldschmiedt gave the scroll, wrapped in a striped prayer shawl, to Manhattan's Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, which had it examined meticulously by a scribe, lest a jot or a tittle had been added or erased. The Congregation planned shortly to have it reconsecrated, to invite Catholics and Protestants to the ceremony.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.