Memorial Scroll

CZECH MEMORIAL SCROLL #793

Originally designated by the Nazis as "Jewish Artifact# 7303A", our Torah Scroll comes from the town of Kromeriz (Kro-MER- jeez·) in Moravia, about 140 miles southeast of Prague. The scroll, written in 1860, is identified as Scroll # 793 by the Memorial Scrolls Trust of Westminster Synagogue in London.

The Jewish community in Kromeriz dates from the middle 1300’s and had over 600 Jews in 1900. Prior to the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, the community's Jewish population was about 300 Jews, none of whom survived Nazi deportation to the death Camps.

The first synagogue of Kromeriz stood from the 15th to 17th century. The Congregation's second building was demolished in 1908, and the Third synagogue, built in 1908-10 on Komenskeho Square, was destroyed by the Nazis in 1942.

When the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939, they gathered and deported the Jews, then took from their synagogues any artifacts of value. 

Over 1560 Torah Scrolls were collected, "tattooed", tagged, and dumped on the floor of a Prague synagogue, waiting for the end of the war. With the conclusion of World War II and the defeat of the Third Reich, this pile of Torah Scrolls lay on the synagogue floor for twenty years until 1964 when efforts were launched to rescue the treasures of Czechoslovakian Jewry. The wine cups, candlesticks, and ritual objects of this collection are known today as "The Precious Legacy" and this collection has toured the United States.

During the preservation, a group of Jews from Westminster Synagogue in London received permission from the government in Prague to ship the Torah Scrolls to London. Shortly thereafter, these Torah Scrolls were made available to any synagogue in the world on "permanent loan".

Our Czech Memorial Scroll arrived in Chattanooga in August of 1984.