Jews in the
Yanov labor camp in occupied Poland secretly defied their Nazi guards by unearthing a Torah scroll which had been buried in the cemetery, cutting the scroll into sections and bounding this parchment around their bodies under their clothing to sneak it into the camp, piece by piece. Inside the camp, the fragments were hidden inside bedposts, under floorboards, wherever they could be hidden. After the camp was liberated in 1945, one survivor collected the scattered parchment and assembled it into one ragged, warped and stained scroll. Thirty years later, the scroll found its way to Los Angeles into the hands of Rabbi Erwin Herman who devoted the final years of his life telling its incredible story.
During an autumn Friday night service, the scroll came to our Temple and its congregants in Los Angeles, where we had an opportunity to open it and hold it, and to learn about a miraculous tale of dedication and survival.
For me, this was a tremendous moment. Even as a child of the sixties where our feminist movement took a turning point in the home and workplace, it hadn't in our religious sectors quite yet. I grew up in a less then reformed congregation, not allowed to approach the bima or read from the Torah, my Bat Mitzvah, just blocks from where this took place, allowed me only the privilege of reading the Haftorah blessings.
Not only, did I, a woman, touch the torah but every man, woman and child in the synagogue held a portion of it as it became unrolled and stretched for all, encircling the room. I had no idea how profound an effect that would have on me -- even now, months later, I am touched to tears as I recall the moment.
I'm not sure if it was the act of being able to participate as an equal in our jewish faith that did it for me, or holding something solid that brought my families struggle from the Concentration Camps of Poland out of the stories and into the reality of Los Angeles that caused the overwhelming emotions to surface. It could have been the amazing individuals that risked their lives to continue their Jewish life in such a defiant manner or the fact that my children were here to benefit from the Yanov Torah's journey. Whatever it was, the impact was clear and each one of us will experience that in their own way as the story touches their lives.
