Scroll gives the Max factor to barmitzvah

WHEN MAX Hilton was called up to the Torah for his barmitzvah at South Hampstead Synagogue, the congregation learned of the scroll’s family connection to the celebrant.

Rabbi Shlomo Levin revealed that it had been rescued from the flames which engulfed the synagogue of Max’s greatgrandfather, Kurt Falkenstein, in the small German village of Meudt during Kristallnacht in 1938.

The scroll had originally been donated to the German shul by Max’s greatgreat-grandfather Solomon Falkenstein in gratitude for the recovery of one of his sons from a life-threatening disease.

After Kristallnacht, the Sefer Torah was hidden in the family home until Kurt Falkenstein, then 17, fled Nazi Germany for England in August 1939. He had little in his suitcase apart from the rolled up scroll and a becher (kiddish cup) belonging to his father.

It was an act of great courage as anyone caught try to take items of Jewish relevance out of Germany risked being sent to a concentration camp.

However, when a young Nazi guard opened his suitcase at the checkpoint and saw the Sefer Torah and becher, he simply shut the case and allowed him to pass.

Since then, when a family member celebrates a barmitzvah, the scroll — on permanent loan to Birmingham’s Central Synagogue — is taken to the simchah venue.

“Reading from the same Torah that my great-grandfather, father and so many family members had read from was very special,” Max told the JC.

“It felt as if all my ancestors were watching over me. I will never forget the experience.” Rabbi Goldberg