A Journey of Resilience: A Torah Scroll's Survival Tale

In the memory space of the Nova site, emotional prayers echoed this week as a unique Torah scroll, nearly 200 years old, was brought into the study hall of the Amit Yigal Yeshiva in Ashdod. Written in Czechoslovakia about 200 years ago, the Torah survived the Holocaust thanks to a non-Jewish person who hid it, though its fate was unclear for decades. It was found abandoned in a basement in Marseille, France, before being offered for sale a few years ago and purchased by a Jewish community in Arizona led by Rabbi Michael Beu.

With the onset of Operation "Guardian of the Walls," Rabbi Beu sought a worthy place where the Torah scroll could continue its remarkable journey. A touching meeting in the Nova forest with Rabbi Shalom Malul, head of the Amit Yigal Yeshiva, sparked the idea of donating the scroll to the yeshiva.

The Torah scroll dedication ceremony began in the Nova forest, a site where many Jews were massacred. Twelfth-grade students prayed a morning service in the forest and completed the writing of the scroll's final letters. A moving parade then made its way, with the participation of bereaved families and many others, from the forest to the yeshiva's study hall. There, in an Ark that is a precise replica of the destroyed Lublin Yeshiva, the Torah scroll found its new home.

(Photo: Ziv Hassan)

"I am very moved by this special occasion," Rabbi Beu shared, "This Torah scroll was saved from the Holocaust, restored thanks to donations from our community in Arizona. We are donating it to the yeshiva, so hundreds and thousands of students will learn from it and use it."

Student Oron Ravivo, present at the ceremony, expressed with excitement: "We came to the Nova Forest to receive this Torah scroll, saved from the Holocaust 200 years ago. We came to explore, listen to families, and learn about our fallen, our holy people."

Rabbi Shalom Malul, the head of the yeshiva, summed up the special day: "A very happy day for the people of Israel... this Torah scroll survived the Holocaust... Nearly eighty years without being raised or read... because the nations, Israel's enemies, tried to erase the name of Israel... but they didn't know that the people of Israel are eternal! We will have the merit to revive this scroll... that's our people's story, even if we fell, we rose. The eternal people do not fear a long journey."