Research project
Learning from Yorkshire’s Holocaust Torah scrolls
- Start date: 1 January 2024
- End date: 31 July 2025
- Primary investigator: Professor Jay Prosser
Description
This project reunites Holocaust Torah scrolls now on long-term loan to different organisations in Yorkshire, including Jewish communities and the University of Leeds Cultural Collections & Galleries. A Torah scroll is a manuscript on parchment of the Hebrew bible, a text central to not only Jewish but Muslim and Christian communities as well as world culture. Strict religious rules surround their handling, yet scrolls are read from weekly by Jewish communities. Scrolls rescued from the Holocaust such as these are precious, powerfully symbolic objects, since they are among the few relics to have survived the near erasure of the communities who used them. The first of its kind on this topic, this project allows charities, religious/cultural communities, an archive and researchers to learn from each other’s different connection to Holocaust Torah scrolls. The result will be a multidimensional story of Holocaust Torah scrolls not possible without all collaborating partners.
Partners
Special Collections and Galleries, University of Leeds
Dr Eva Frojmovic, Director of the Centre of Jewish Studies, University of Leeds
Sinai Synagogue, Leeds
York Liberal Jewish Community (YLJC)
Sophia Lambert, Project Assistant, School of History.
Main image credit: Czech Scroll MST#68, University of Leeds Special Collections. Image used under creative commons licence