UK: Last East London Jewish Hospital Demolished

From The Forward

October 31, 2011, 1:47pm

Last East London Jewish Hospital Demolished

By Renee Ghert-Zand

Despite opposition, the last remaining Jewish hospital building in London’s East End will be torn down to make way for a five-story housing development. The Tower Hamlets council agreed for the Jewish Maternity Hospital on Underwood Road, Whitechapel, to be demolished because it does not have landmark status. It is neither listed by English Heritage, nor does it fall within a Conservation Area, according to a report in the East London Advertiser.

Those opposed to the demolition, including cultural and political leaders, are especially upset that the cottages next door to the hospital are also set to be taken down. They say that they are large single-family homes in good shape. “The Director of Jewish Heritage UK, Sharman Kadish, also wrote to Peabody [the real estate developer], saying the social and historic significance of the cottages next to the main hospital building have been overlooked while urging the trust to convert the cottages into residential use,” the article in the Advertiser said.

The developer contends that keeping the cottages would negatively affect the number of housing units needed to be built and would make its plan financially unfeasible.

The Jewish Maternity Hospital operated between 1911 and 1947 and had an attached midwifery school. It was built as a two-story building containing three maternity wards, an operating theater and several annexes and offices. Of its 12 beds, 4 were reserved for patients who could not pay for medical care. The building quickly became too small, and eventually additional wings were added on. The hospital also added on many other services, including pre-natal and post-natal care clinics.

Since WWII, and after the hospital moved to another site, the building has served as a nursery and childcare center, and more recently as a family welfare association for local residents in Tower Hamlets.

Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/the-shmooze/145268/#ixzz1d19IBqYk

Exhibition: Newly Acquired Chagall Apocalypse Painting on View in London

Marc Chagall, Apocalypse in Lilac: Capriccio (1945)

Exhibition: Newly Acquired Chagall Apocalypse Painting on View in London

by Samuel D. Gruber
 

Many of you have probably already read that the Ben Uri Gallery: London Jewish Museum of Art has acquired an important work by Marc Chagall – one of a series of depictions of Crucified Jewish Jesus – an image he favored in the late 1930s and early 1940s as he watched German Nazis and German, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, Bylorussian and Ukrainian Christians participate – actively or as passive bystanders – in the murder of millions of Jews. The painting was acquired through the sharp and adroit acquisition policy of my friend David Glasser, Chairman of the Museum, which was founded in 2001 and has since then built an impressive collection and staged important exhibitions – though the institution is still looking for a permanent home.  

The painting is on view until January 31st at Osborne Samuel, 23 Bruton Street, London W1 (Opening hours: Monday – Friday, 10am-6pm, Saturday 10am-2pm, Sunday, 12-4pm). The new acquisition is a gouache (a heavy dense watercolor) made by Chagall in 1945, who kept it his private collection. It was first sold in 1985, two years after the painter’s death. It is titled in pencil in Russian, “Apocalypse in Lilac, Capriccio." You can read more about the acquisition in an article from the New York Times. 

Despite the title’s use of the term Capriccio, the work is remarkable for its depiction of anger – much more pronounced here than in Chagall’s earlier crucifixion works which are more infused with helpless pathos than any other emotion. Here Jesus is identified as Jewish not only because he wears a tallit (prayer shawl) but also, as in Yellow Crucifixion of 1943, with tefillin (phylacteries). In the Yellow Crucifixion, which is linked to the sinking of the Struma, this Jewish Jesus is paired with an image of the Torah scroll.

In the “Apocalypse in Lilac, Capriccio” Jesus’s facial expression is similar to that of the Jewish Jesus in the large painting Resurrection, which Chagall began in 1937, but continued to work on through 1947. In 1944, the year before the gouache, Chagall painted The Crucified, but in that work there is no Jesus, only village Jews who have been nailed to crosses placed along a shtetl street. This is a variation on Chagall’s 1941 painting The Martyr, set in a very similar scene. Here, however, in the foreground is a Jesus-like figure, not crucified, but bound to an upright post. He is a young man, wearing a tallit-like covering, with tefillin-like strips on his arms, and the cap of Jewish worker. At his feet is a grieving woman, presumably a conflation of a Jewish mother of the shtetl, the traditional grieving Mary at the cross, and a more general allegorical representation of grief. The 1944 painting is a reaction to the news, known at this time, of the “liquidation” of the Ghettos, the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, and the destruction of Jewish Vitebsk – Chagall's home town, which he had depicted so lovingly in previous decade.

The theme of Jewish Jesus in Chagall’s art and in the work of other artists since the 19th century has been explored by several art and cultural historians. The best and most thorough treatments are by Ziva Amishai-Maisels in her classic work Depiction and Interpretation: The Influence of the Holocaust on the Visual Arts, especially Part II, chapter 3, “ The Crucified Jew,” pp 178 197. The topic is further explored in Amishai-Maisels article “The Jewish Jesus” in Journal of Jewish Art 9 (1982): 84–104. Prof. Amishai-Maisels has advised the Ben-Uri on the current exhibition.

UK: Synagogues and Historic Sites Nationwide Open Doors For European Day of Jewish Culture

UK: Synagogues and Historic Sites Nationwide Open Doors For European Day of Jewish Culture

London, England, UK. Two of the synagogues open to the public on September 6th. Above, the magnificent Victorian-era New West End Synagogue designed by George Audsley and built form 1877-79 and below the Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue, actually a simple East End Synagogue, built in 1899 and still in use. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber.

Manchester, England, UK. Visitors will be welcome at the Higher Crumpsall & Higher Broughton Hebrew Congregation, built 1928-29 (above) and at the Manchester Jewish Museum in the former Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, designed by Edward Salomons and built 1873-4 (window dtl from 1913, below). Photos: Samuel D. Gruber

Across the United Kingdom Jewish organizations, institutions and congregations are joining forces for the tenth straight year to open their doors to the broad public as part of European Days of Jewish Culture and Heritage. The annual event was first organized in 1996 by the B'nai B'rith Lodge in Strasbourg, France. It has now spread to 27 countries, and approximately 200,000 people participate each year. In the UK, B'nai B'rith UK is the primary organizer, with support from Jewish Heritage UK and dozens of local organizations. This year, over 90 events are offered, including open synagogues and tours, historic and architectural walking tours, concerts, exhibitions and lectures. It is impossible for one individual to take advantage of more than a handful of activities, but the organizers have wisely spread events over the period of more than an entire week, beginning September 6th with some events offered as late September 16th.

London, England, UK. The former Spitalfields Great Synagogue on Brick Lane was built as a Huguenot Chapel and is now a Bengali Mosque. A visit is scheduled on a walking tour of the Jewish East End.

If you live in are are visiting the UK have always wanted to visit a particular synagogues - this is your chance. If you can't decide, then take a look at the popular guidebook Jewish Heritage in the England: An Architectural Guide. Or better still, try on of nine different walking tours offered in London on September 6th, or tours in Richmond or York. In addition to 12 synagogues open in London on Sunday, September 6th, you can also visit synagogues in Bangor, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Chatham, Cornwall, Lincoln, Liverpool, Manchester, Ramsgate, and Reading.

Click here for full UK program

For links to events in other countries click here.

UK: London Jewish Museum Must Purchase Lindo Hanukkiah on Display for 70 Years

UK: London Jewish Museum Must Purchase Lindo Hanukkiah on Display for 70 Years
by Samuel D. Gruber (based on news reports)

The London Jewish Museum reports that it is close to raising funds needed to purchase the famous 18th century Lindo hanukkiah (click here for photo) which it has displayed for seventy years - since the museum was founded. The silver hanukkiah was commissioned from artisan John Ruslen in 1709 to honor the marriage of Elias Lindo to Rachel Lopes Ferreira. Descendants of the "donors" to the museum want to sell the renowned object, and the museum must raise £300,000 to avoid the work leaving public view to most likely enter a private collection.

Unless the family is really hard up for money or to pay taxes, it seems disgraceful and extortionary that the family should ask for money for the work generations after it was put on display. Are they taking advantage of the Museum's reopening - knowing that this is a central object of the collection, one that the Museum can not afford to lose? One would think that the work is de facto the property of the museum after all these years.

The Museum has raised £250,000, including £145,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), £75,000 from the independent Art Fund, and £30,000 from the MLA/V&A Purchase Fund; £50,000 are still needed. This purchase is on top of the £14 million raised for the expansion of the museum’s Camden Town facility (including £4.2 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund), scheduled to reopen in early 2010.

In addition to the importance of the Hanukkiah for its age (London's oldest standing synagogue, Bevis Marks, for example, was built only in 1701) and certain provenance, the work is unusual for its iconography of the Prophet Elijah begin fed by Ravens (I Kings 17:6) a allusion to the patron Elias (Elijah) Lindo. Though the subject is not very common in Jewish art, it was popular during the Baroque period in both Catholic and Protestant lands. For example, there is a late 16th century version by the Flemish painter Paolo Fiammingo (now in San Francisco), and a well known version from 1620 by the Italian artist Guercino (coincidentally, now in London at the National Gallery). A version by Dutch artist Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651) was copied in prints of the 17th and 18th centuries. Click here to see an anonymous print of the subject from 1712. Such printed works probably influenced Ruslen's design.

Read the full story as reported from ArtDaily.org (presumably from a press release). The Jerusalem Post ran the story almost verbatim, read it here.

Exhibition: Synaogues of Romania on View in London

Exhibition: Synaogues of Romania on View in London

Photographs of Romania synagogues by Christian Binder will be on view in London from June 10-17, and at the opening on June 10th there will a presentation about the documentation project and related preservation issues by Julie Dawson, who has coordinated this work. There will also be music presentations.

Sponsorship contributions to continue the work of Dawson and Binder can be made through ISJM (contact samuelgruber@gmail.com).

Here is the release by the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, which is sponsoring the event and exhibition:

The Romanian Cultural Institute London, in partnership with Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET) and with the support of Spiro Ark organises an event highlighting Romania's rich Jewish cultural heritage: Synagogues of Romania, an exhibition of photographs of synagogues in southern Transylvania, accompanied by presentations from Andrei Oisteanu, Julie Dawson and Letitia Cosnean and klezmer music live concert with Kosmos Ensemble.

"In the wake of the Holocaust and subsequent mass migration of the vast majority of Romania's Jewish population, countless synagogues fell into various stages of disrepair and decay. This photo exhibition aims to capture the transitional stage in which Romania now finds itself. With the entrance of foreign investors and NGOs, some synagogues are being restored, turned into cultural centers or finding alternative uses. Others remain abandoned, assuming a central location in the town's center and representing an evocative, stubborn reminder of the recent and troubled past."

Julie Dawson, curator

Photography: Christian Binder | http://www.pbase.com/binderch/synagogues

The event brings together:

• the photographic exhibition;

• presentations: Julie Dawson and Letitia Cosnean will lecture about "The Plight of Romanian Synagogues" and the "Restoration of the Medias Synagogue" respectively, Andrei Oisteanu will talk about "Jewish Culture in Romania".
Mr Oisteanu will also present his recent book Inventing the Jew. Antisemitic Stereotypes in Romanian and Other Central-East European Cultures, published by University of Nebraska Press, USA.

• klezmer music live concert given by the Kosmos Ensemble.

The event will take place in the presence of HE Dr Ion Jinga, the Ambassador of Romania in the UK.

Julie Dawson works in Romania and has traveled extensively throughout Eastern Europe visiting both shtetls and former centers of Yiddish culture. She has been instrumental in organizing regional Yiddish/Jewish cultural events including klezmer and Yiddish song concert tours, photo-documentary exhibitions and community education programs.

Letitia Cosnean is MET's architect in Sighisoara and her lecture will shed light on the restoration process of the Medias Synagogue.

Andrei Oisteanu is a Romanian historian whose research fields include: ethnology, cultural anthropology, history of religions and mentalities. His writings are seen as a considerable contribution to researching magical and ritual practices as well as mythical and religious symbols. He is also noted for his work in Jewish studies and the history of anti-Semitism; Oisteanu has been the first researcher to have developed a complete study in image ideology focusing on the way in which Jewish people were represented within the Romanian mentality and folklore.

Kosmos is an innovative ensemble that composes original music in which there is space for improvisation. Offering a unique sound free from borders or labels, the ensemble aims to explore the boundaries of Western Classical music with Eastern European, Gypsy, Balkan, Klezmer and Tango with contemporary influences. Since their debut in 2005, Kosmos has been enthusiastically acclaimed by audiences at festivals and music societies across Europe.

When: Opening: 10 June 2009, 6 - 8 pm

Photography exhibition: 11-17 June, 10 am - 6 pm

Where: Romanian Cultural Institute, 1 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PH
Admission: free for the exhibition. Opening: by invitation. We have a limited number of seats - please get in touch if you want to attend.

UK: London's Sandys Row Synagogue Receives Large English Heritage Grant

Sandys Row Synagogue. Photos courtesy of and copyright Sandys Row Synagogue, 2009.

UK: London's Sandys Row Synagogue Receives Large English Heritage Grant
by Samuel D. Gruber (based on reports from Sandys Row Synagogue and English Heritage)

(ISJM) In another sign that Jewish heritage is now taken seriously in the UK, English Heritage has awarded its second significant grant this year for synagogue restoration. In March English heritage and the Heritage Lottery gave funds for restoration work at the London's Victorian high style New West End Synagogue. On May 12, 2009 The English Heritage - Heritage Lottery Fund Places of Worship Scheme announced an every larger award £254,000 to Sandys Row Synagogue, the oldest Ashkenazi Synagogue in London, and one of the oldest in the country, for major repairs to the roof and exterior water handling system. The award was part of a package of grants worth £7 million for essential repairs to 56 Grade II listed places of worship across England. London received £1,007,000 for the restoration of seven houses of worship. The other London recipients were historic churches.

Sandys Row Synagogue, which is listed as Grade II historic monument, is deemed the most important site in Britain, still in use, with a direct link to the mass immigration of Jews in the 19th century. It is one of the few synagogues still active in the East End, once the epicenter of Ashkenazi Jewish life in London.

According to Sharman Kadish in (her essential history and guide) Jewish Hertiage in England (p. 10), "Sandys Row Synaoggue is one of the earliest surviving examples of a chapel conversion for Jewish worship in Britain. The building started life as a Hugeunot church, L'Eglise de l'Artillerie, in 1766. From the Huguenots, the church passed through a series of Protestant groups - the Universalist Baptists, the Unitarian Baptists, theScottish Baptists and the Salem Chapel - before it reached Hevrat Menahem Avelim Hesed v'Emet ('Comforters of the Mourners Kindnessand Truth Society") in 1867."

The sanctuary retains 18th-century architectural features, including the original roof. An additional building was erected on Sandys Row itself as part of the re-orientation when the synagogue was consecrated. The 19th-century interior, with its galleries, is essentially intact.

Repair of the building is desperately needed. According to Anthony Walker, the conservation architect who has led the synagogue’s team of advisers, “Last September, in the course of detailed research by conservation surveyors, we discovered that two of the four corner roof supports were completely rotten. The entire Huguenot structure was being held up by the 18th-century ceiling plasterwork.” Jack Gilbert synagogue Board member, spokesperson and a prime mover of this project, said, “Within days, the Synagogue Board were able to implement emergency temporary support structures to prevent an imminent collapse but without this grant the future would be bleak.”

According to Gilbert, "Without the grant, this unique link back to the great Jewish migration of the 19th Century would be in danger of physical collapse. Now the Huguenot roof and walls can look forward to their 250th anniversary in 2013 and beyond! This marks a major milestone for the Sandys Row Synagogue community, as we build a vibrant program of religious and cultural activities, and develop a greater role in celebrating Jewish East End heritage. It is a fantastic starting point — and there is much more we need to do!"

Gilbert credits personal letters of support for the project and the grant application sent by Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, and Henry Grunwald QC, President of the Board of Deputies. The rabbinic support is a sign of continuing thaw within the organized English Jewish community toward working with preservationists to save historic Jewish sites. Only little more than decade ago, there was resistance to outsiders and non-Jews involving themselves in the protection and care of Jewish heritage. Gradually through education and outreach, and also several scandals about the deterioration and demolition of historic buildings, a more production relationship has evolved.

According to Gilbert, the award comes at a time when Sandys Row Synagogue is considering the feasibility of creating an East End Heritage educational center and alongside the Monday-Thursday lunchtime minyan (prayer group), fortnightly Shabbat services and regular tours, they will shortly be adding a women’s minyan and evening cultural activities.

Dr Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage, said, “English Heritage is delighted to be announcing these repair grants for historic places of worship – particularly on the day that the government launches ‘World Class Places’. Historic buildings connect us to our past and enhance our enjoyment of the places in which we live, work and worship. These beautiful listed buildings are at the heart of our communities and they must remain in active use. We are especially pleased that buildings used by such a broad range of religious groups."

London, England, New West End Synagogue. Photos: S. D. Gruber

England: English Heritage Grant for Repairs at London's New West End Synagogue

In March 3, 2009 English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund announced more than £15.5 million in grants to 150 Grade I and II (Monument) listed places of worship in the UK as part of the joint Repair Grants for Places of worship scheme.

Seven Grade buildings in London received a total of over 1 million pounds in awards, and one of these was the great Victorian New West End Synagogue, which was elevated to Grade I status in 2007, and received a grant of £108,000 for roof repairs. The Bayswater synagogue was designed by George Audsley and dedicated in 1879 is one of only two Grade I Jewish sites in the UK, the other begin Bevis Marks Synagogue, England's oldest standing synagogue, built in 1701. Audsley also built the Princes Road Synagogue in Liverpool, which shares some features with the New West End Synagogue. The Liverpool synagogue was elevated to Grade I status in 2008 when it also received a grant of £112,000 to help with desperately needed roof repairs.



Click here for some history of the New West End Synagogue.
(with a link to photo galleries and various articles)

Look at photos of the synagogue by Sarah Lee for The Guardian.
(much better photos than mine!)

London, England, New West End Synagogue.

Seats in Women's Gallery. Photo: S. D. Gruber

It is only in recent years that English Heritage has so readily recognized the historical and architectural significance of synagogue in the UK. Part of this is due to the greater development of a politics of cultural pluralism in England, but much of the credit for this progress must go to Dr. Sharman Kadish of the University of Manchester who as Director of Jewish Heritage UK has forged a productive partnership with English Heritage to document and list Jewish sites. Significantly English Heritage published Kadish's excellent architectural guide Jewish Heritage in England [ISBN 10-1 905 624 28 X] in 2006.

Kadish's success is on both sides of the issue. Not only has she gained the interest of national culture arbiter for Jewish sites, she has gradually led Jewish leaders to trust non-Jewish culture agencies more. Of course, the reality of significant grant money now demonstrates the virtue of this partnership, and the success of the program should only encourage more synagogue congregations to step forward to apply for Heritage Lottery Fund support.

Exhibition: London's Ben Uri Gallery Hosts Major Jacques Lipchitz Drawing Exhibition

Exhibition: London's Ben Uri Gallery Hosts Major Jacques Lipchitz Drawing Exhibition
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) The Ben Uri Gallery in London will open a major exhibition of over 150 drawings by famed Lithuania-born Paris School artist Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973). Jacques Lipchitz, Master Drawings: The Anatomy of a Sculptor will open on Wednesday 6th May, 2009.

The exhibition spans 60 years of the career of Lipchitz, known as a 'life long cubist," but whose work - as is well demonstrated in his drawings - was as much expressive as analytic. According to the Ben Uri announcement, the exhibition of this works (from an American collection) is the first British museum survey of Lipchitz since the 1986 exhibition The Lipchitz Gift, Models for Sculpture at the Tate Gallery. Lipchitz's preparatory work was featured in the traveling exhibition Selected Master Drawings in 1974-75. This present exhibition will expose a new generation to Lipchitz's energetic style that in subject matter combined, myth, dream, symbol and memory into a unique graphic and sculptural language.

This year is the 100th anniversary of Lipchitz's arrival in Paris, where he became a leading figure in what came to be called the Paris School, where he was also a leader among the many East European immigrant artists. Born Chaim Jacob Lipchitz in Druskieniki, Lithuania in 1891, the artist was just 18 when he came to Paris. Two years later, in 1911, he moved to the Paris studio and apartment at 54, Rue du Montparnasse where lived his friend and fellow Litvak, Lazar Berson. Berson later moved on to London, and in July 1915 founded the Ben Uri.

Lipchitz left Paris in 1940, fleeing to Toulouse after the German occupation of the city. In 1941 Amercian diplomat Varian Fry helped smuggle the artist to New York. While Lipchitz is much celebrated in Israel, where his monumental sculpture Our Tree of Life (1962-72) adorns the grounds of Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus, he did not travel to Israel until 1963. Though he died in Capri (Italy) in 1973, he is buried in Jerusalem.

At Ben Uri Gallery, 108A Boundary Road, London NW8 0RH until 26 July.

For more information see: www.benuri.org.uk / info@benuri.org.uk

England: Synagogue Textile Exhibit at London's Bevis Marks Synagogue

England: Synagogue Textile Exhibit at London's Bevis Marks Synagogue

The Friends of the Jewish Museum of London has opened “Hidden Treasures- Sacred Textiles,” an exhibition of rare textiles from the collections of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation (Bevis Marks Synagogue) and the Montefiore Endowment, at the Bevis Marks Synagogue. Bevis Marks, built in 1701, is the oldest extant synagogue building in the British Isles.

Some of the Bevis Marks Torah mantles have been in the possession of the Congregation for three centuries.

The exhibition shows off other textiles, many of which have been conserved for the first time in years. Funds were raised from private sources for conservation, and more remains to be done.

Exhibited textiles include mappot, used to cover the scroll during interludes between reading, and a gilded linen jacket believed to have worn by the Reverend David de Sola at his circumcision at the end of the 18th century. A Torah mantle donated to Ramsgate Synagogue in 1833 was made from the wedding dress of Judith, Lady Montefiore, wife of Sir Moses. The gift was apparently in gratitude to God for her marriage. The use of cast off but still valuable clothing for materials for synagogue textiles was common in the pre-modern era (The Jewish Museum in Rome, for example, has a Torah mantle made from a dress that once belonged to Queen Christina of Sweden.)

Another mantle bears the initials of Moses Lopez Pereira, the first Baron Aguilar, who grew up in a family descended from conversos (forced converts to Christianity) but who reverted to Judaism in Vienna in 1722. He came to London with his 14 children in 1757. A decorated tefillin bag has special interest For Bevis Marks curator, Maurice Bitton: it has been handed down through his family from 18th century Morocco. "Every boy in the Bitton family," he said, "has used it on his barmitzvah down the generations."

For more on the exhibition click here

The exhibition runs until 15 March 2009.
Hidden Treasures, Sacred Textiles is open until mid-March from 11 am to 1pm on weekdays, and 10.30 am to 12.30pm Sundays

UK: New Czech Scrolls Museum To Open in London, September 17th, 2008

UK: New Czech Scrolls Museum To Open in London, September 17th, 2008

The Memorial Scrolls Trust has entirely redesigned and reinstalled is facilities at Kent House in London to create a new Czech Scroll Museum, to open to the public with a reception on the evening of September 17th. The previous exhibition has been in place since 1988. I have written about the story of the scrolls before but it is a story that merits retelling.

In 1964, 1,564 Torah Scrolls arrived at Kent House in London, the home of London's Westminster Synagogue. After intense negotiations, they were brought from a dilapidated synagogue in Prague where they had moldered since they were collected from the Jewish congregations of Moravia and Bohemia at the time of their destruction. In London, during the next four decades, in a suite of rooms above the synagogue at Kent House, many of the scrolls were restored for synagogue service while others made suitable for use a memorials. Almost all the scrolls have sent out to communities across the world, where their use and exhibition is a constant reminder of the Holocaust.

The existence of the Torah scrolls is a constant reminder of the murder of Czech Jews and the destruction of Czech Jewish communities and synagogues in the Holocaust. The survival of the Torah scrolls and their rescue and repair and subsequent distribution to Jewish communities throughout the world, is in its simplest terms, testimony to the resilience of Judaism and the Jewish people. The new museum, which is the product of the energy and commitment of Evelyn Friedlander, Chair and Curator of the Czech Memorial Scrolls Trust, and German designer Fritz Armbruster, tells these stories, and more. The Jewish Museum in Prague has provided support, information and contributed exhibition objects on loan.

In addition to commemorating those tens of thousands of Czech Jews killed in the Holocaust, Evelyn Friedlander writers in the Trust’s newsletter that “The Museum is also a memorial to two groups of people; the Jews of the Prague Jewish community who worked at the Central Jewish Museum and who proposed the plan that enabled so many ritual objects to be saved. The second group to be honored in our new exhibition is those founder members of Westminster Synagogue, who, under the leadership of Rabbi Harold Reinhart, enabled these Scrolls to be brought to London. Here, they were returned to life and distributed to communities all over the world.”
The new museum shows the various stages of the story of the rescue of the Scrolls, from the tragedy of the Czech Jewish community under the Nazis, to the arrival of the Scrolls in London, the subsequent work done by professional scribes, the sending out of the scrolls to their new Jewish (and non-Jewish homes) and the present-day research undertaken by those recipients to explore the background of their Scroll.

Among the exhibits are the remaining scrolls lying on the original wooden racks where they were placed when they arrived, and an display of some of the Torah binders which were tied around the scrolls. The exhibition also show’s the scribe’s table where he worked meticulously upon the scrolls, together with his ink, pens and other equipment.

The Museum will open on 17th September and thereafter will be open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to 4 pm.? Groups are asked to contact the Trust to arrange party visits.

Address: Westminster Synagogue, Rutland Gardens, Knightsbridge, London SW7 1BX

Tel: 020 7584 3741 , e-mail: czech.scrolls@virgin.net