Several Torah scrolls were stolen from Antwerp’s main synagogue in what may be the largest such theft ever reported in Belgium.
Congregation members arrived for morning services on May 29 to find that four to six Torah scrolls had been taken overnight from the synagogue on Oostenstraat. One of the missing scrolls is more than 200 years old and was hidden by a Jewish woman held in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.
Community leaders suspect that the thieves had inside information on how to reach the ark through a hallway door into the sanctuary.
Experts have suggested that the thieves are more likely to demand a ransom for the Torah scrolls rather than try to sell them, as the scrolls are easily identifiable, the Belgian-based Jewish newspaper Joods Aktueel reported. — jta