On Kristallnacht, the infamous “night of broken glass” when Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues were destroyed across Germany on Nov. 9, 1938, 14-year-old Isaac Schwartz of Hamburg saved a single Torah scroll from a burning pyre of sacred Jewish items.
Today, 78 years later, that same Torah scroll is on a world tour that has brought it to several Bay Area Chabad outposts. It spent the Shabbat of Jan. 15 with Chabad of Danville and the Shabbat of Jan. 22 at Chabad of Sacramento. From there, it visits Chabads in Palo Alto (Jan. 29), Lake Tahoe (Feb. 5), Stanford University (Feb. 9), San Francisco (Feb. 12) and Sonoma County (Feb. 19). As it journeys around the region, congregants will be able to carry, kiss and read from it.
Schwartz buried the scroll after saving it, and his family recovered it after the war. But the Torah was no longer fit for use, with sections of parchment torn and letters rubbed away. The scroll was recently purchased by philanthropist Leonard Wien, who donated it to the Chabad-affiliated Jewish Learning Institute. It then went through an 18-month rehabilitation at the hands of a sofer, or ritual scribe, before beginning its trip around the world.
This year is also a Hakhel year, “a once-every-seven-years occurrence celebrated with gatherings for study and inspiration,” according to a Chabad statement. Traditionally, the Hakhel year marks the commemoration of a biblical observance when Jews would come to Jerusalem to hear the king read from the Torah.
“In this Hakhel year of unity,” Rabbi Shmuli Raitman of Chabad of Danville said in the statement, “it is deeply poignant that we will be united in such a meaningful way with Jews all over the globe.” — j. staff