DAILY

Friday, March 23, 2007

The Lostice Torahs will be exhibited in London

Lostice. Two rare Torahs from the collection of the Foundation Respect and Tolerance travel to London. They will be presented in the exhibition The Second Life of Czech Torah Scrolls, which was recently shown in the Jewish Museum in Prague. Exposition will be displayed in the Westminster Synagogue, which helped to prepare the exhibition. The catalogue is printed in Czech-English version.

“Here in London we will present mainly artifacts from our own collection, but we are borrowing some uncommon scrolls from the Prague exhibition, because of their interesting stories,” said Evelyn Friedlander when she came to pick up the Lostice Torahs to Prague.

Evelyne is the director of the Memorial Scroll Trust which manages a set of 1564 Scrolls bought in 1964 from Czechoslovakia. Now they are giving the Torahs on long term basis to Jewish congregations around the world. Many years ago one of the Lostice Torahs went through this project to the Congregation Hakafa in Glencoe, Illinois. In 2005 members of this Congregation came to visit to Lostice with their Torah. Documentation and video records of the visit is also included in the exhibition.

The unique miniature Torah from the collection of Respect and Tolerance collection will be displayed in London as well.

The other artifact is a fragment of Torah from Mirov prison. In 1957 one of the political prisoners Mr. Janku found there the scroll in the attic and later he hid it in a safer place (to protect it from communist guards). In 1999 he visited the prison and with the permission of a new management he searched for the scroll. Unfortunately he was very disappointed. Repair of the roof was done in the place where hi hid the scroll and his treasure was gone.

However, in spring 2006 he had the opportunity to see the Torah again, after he mentioned his story in a lecture in Mohelnice. Torah was at that time in the collection of the Foundation Respect and Tolerance (acquired from a private collector). “During his talk I realized we have in our collection a scroll with inscription State institute for reformation in Mirov. We showed it to him. Mr. Janku recognized it immediately,“ said Ludek Stipl from the Foundation Respect and Tolerance.

Mr. Jan Janku with his Torah visiting the Mirov Prison in August 2006

For more information please see: Exhibitions – The Second Life of Czech Torah Scrolls