A 19th century Torah scroll rescued from the Nazis is getting a second life at a Bronx hospital.
The damaged scroll, which dates from 1880 in what is now the Czech Republic, is being carefully restored at Calvary Hospital for eventual use in services and rituals for its Jewish patients.
The restoration is part of a decades long effort to repair nearly 1,600 sacred Torahs — Jewish Scriptures written by hand on parchment scrolls — damaged after German forces seized cultural and religious artifacts from Jewish communities during World War II.
So-called Scroll No. 515, taken from a synagogue in the Czech town of Domazlice, is on permanent loan to Calvary from London-based Memorial Scrolls Trust, an organization that has been mending and distributing Torah scrolls to congregations worldwide since the 1960s.
“When a Torah is no longer able to be used, it’s either buried like a person or restored,” said Calvary Hospital Rabbi Rachmiel Rothberger.
“The beauty of the whole project is that when the scribes inspected the Torah, they found it could be repaired. The fact that they were able to repair it and bring it back to life is a special honor.”
The Calvary scroll, housed at the hospital’s Bronx campus in Eastchester, is being worked on by a rabbinical restoration team from the organization Sofer On Site that is painstakingly fixing the many creases, tears and holes, as well as re-inking words and letters originally written with a quill feather.
The goal is to get it up to “kosher” status, meaning it can be officially used in services at the hospital, said Rothberger.
The restoration may cost as much as $100,000, a Calvary spokeswoman said. Once enough money is raised, remaining funds will go toward benefiting patients and families regardless of faith.
The hospital, which provides end-of-life care for cancer patients of all faiths and others with serious illnesses, has set up a Web page for contributions at calvaryhospital.org/torahrestoration.
The Torah scroll isn’t only valued for its religious and historical significance; it’s also a symbol of Calvary’s outreach to the Jewish community.
While it isn’t ready yet for services, Rothberger said the scroll has so far been a source of inspiration and peace for many of its Jewish patients.
“We bring it to their rooms so that they can say a prayer and kiss the Torah,” he said.
