From Hitler's Basement to Jerusalem: A Talmud's Journey

A volume of the Talmud from Tractate Pesachim was recently delivered to Yad Vashem. This wasn't just any volume, but one found in the beer cellar of the infamous Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, may his name be erased. The Talmud was discovered by the Herzog family, passed down through generations until reaching the current President of Israel, Isaac 'Bougie' Herzog. He decided to entrust it to Yad Vashem, and a dedication ceremony took place over the weekend, attended by Yad Vashem's chairman, Dani Dayan.

The volume is from the Babylonian Talmud and was penned in 1807, yet it surfaced more than a century later, specifically in 1945. It was found in a beer cellar in Munich belonging to Hitler, exactly where the Nazi party meetings were held during the war, alongside thousands of sacred texts. These books belonged to Jews and were seized during the war, along with numerous works of art.

Initially, the book was discovered by Chief Military Rabbi Jacob Lipschitz, along with the head of the Zionist Organization's Aliyah Department, Eliyahu Dobkin, who handed it over to the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog. He is the grandfather of the current president. Initially, the book was passed to President Herzog's father, the sixth President, Chaim Herzog, and from there to his son.

President Herzog remarked: "The journey of this book, found in Hitler's beer cellar, tells in many respects the story of my family, but above all, it tells the story of a nation and a people. A people with roots deeper and stronger than any catastrophe. It's a story of the Holocaust and rebirth, of destruction and redemption, of mourning and rebuilding."

"Depositing this special Tractate Pesachim with Yad Vashem and displaying it in the Return to Life gallery at the museum, carries double significance for us," added Dani Dayan, "both the transfer of our heritage from generation to generation, today, just days before Passover – and the revival, freedom, and independence that we need to remember and emphasize especially in these days. I thank the President and the entire Herzog family for choosing to place this item with Yad Vashem and share it and its significance with all of Israel."