New chapter for historic Sephardi Torah scroll
A PASSIONATE collector of bibles might not have foreseen that one of his bequests would lead to a Shacharit service taking place in the Wren Library at Cambridge University.
William Aldis Wright, a former vicemaster of Trinity College, Cambridge, who died in 1914, had bequested to the college a 14th-century Sephardi sefer Torah found in the Yemen.
When Yisrael Malkiel, Jewish chaplain for universities in Cambridge and East Anglia, noticed a reference to the scroll in Herbert Loewe’s 1926 Catalogue of Hebrew Manuscripts in the Wren Library he asked to see the scroll. Mr Malkiel, who was “profoundly moved by the outstanding condition of the scroll: the beauty of parchment and script and the use of ancient scribal traditions, was inspired to plan the early morning service and the event attracted 50 guests from across the Jewish and wider community.
He said: “Cambridge’s contemporary Jewish life and rich tradition of Hebrew scholarship are both represented by this Torah scroll. It’s an amazing moment for us as well as for the students to be able to hold a traditional morning service in one of Cambridge’s most iconic institutions — one which has so generously welcomed us.
“We asked one of our students whose family is of Yemeni origin to do the reading using traditional Yemenite pronunciation and melody which made this event yet more exciting and symbolic.
“We combined a celebration of religious and cultural tradition with that of modernity and academia.
Librarian Sandy Paul said that it was good to see the library “used in a different and meaningful way”.
The Wren Library was completed in 1695 to the design of Sir Christopher Wren. It contains manuscripts and printed books and various special collections given to the college.