Representing Jewish Communities in 100 Countries Across Six Continents
Representing Jewish Communities in 100 Countries Across Six Continents
01 June 2010
Six Torah scrolls have been stolen from one of the main synagogues in Antwerp, Belgium. According to the Jewish magazine ‘Joods Actueel’, members of the Antwerp community were shocked to find on Saturday morning that the synagogue, located at the Osstenstraat, had been broken into.
The burglars apparently broke into the shul through a side building and proceeded to open the Holy Ark and steal the Torah scrolls. Pinkhas Kornfeld, secretary of Antwerp’s Jewish community, suggested that the burglars “perhaps had inside information.”
"These books are worth a lot of money, more than € 30,000 [US$ 36,000] each, and this is why they were apparently stolen. The investigation has just begun, and so far we don't know anything," Kornfeld said.
One of the Torah scrolls is more than 200 years old. During World War II, a woman who had been deported to a concentration camp brought the Torah with her and hid it all the time. The synagogue was about to be renovated in order to enhance security at the building.
Antwerp is home to 20,000 Jews, most of whom are Orthodox.
Read more about the Jewish community in Belgium here.
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Above all of news, we learn that the values property and have history value can not be stored by private (or private located) , but It should be stored in a National Museum or a specific facilities of the state.
Sad story. But I must take issue with one detail, the one saying, "During World War II, a woman who had been deported to a concentration camp brought the Torah with her and hid it all the time."
Are you implying that the woman actually had the Torah with her in a concentration camp and was able to hide it during the entire period of her imprisonment ? Take it from a survivor of six German concentration camps that such a tale is wholly implausible. When you arrived in any one of these camps, you had to strip naked, all your possessions were taken away, your head and your body hair were shaved off, and even your mouth and your anus were inspected for contraband. And whenever you were moved from one camp to another, the same procedure was repeated.
This is hardly the first fake story I have heard, but I think that it is important to guard against these and to make sure that only the truth about the Holocaust is remembered.
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