Retired teacher on a mission to save sacred Jewish scrolls

Boca grandmother wants to restore 118 Torahs that have decayed since WWII “They haven’t been touched in 70 years. They are in good ... condition.” Sibyl Silver, who brought Torahs to Boca Raton

A lengthy and loving restoration process will soon begin for three Hungarian Torahs, rescued from Russia by a Boca Raton grandmother determined to save the Holocaust relics.

The three Torahs, deposited after World War II in a Russian library basement, will be dedicated Sunday at Boca Raton Synagogue, which will house them as they undergo repairs.

The Torahs were among 118 taken from the Hungarian Jewish community during World War II and stored as the spoils of war in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Two rabbis from the Orthodox Chabad movement of Judaism discovered the scrolls after the Russians returned a cache of antique books from the same archive to the Hungarian Jewish community in 2006.

Sibyl Silver, a retired teacher, got permission to bring three of the Torahs to Boca Raton recently and offered them to Boca Raton Synagogue, which she attends. Silver created The Jewish Heritage Foundation a few months ago to restore the Torahs and other Jewish

“They haven’t been touched in 70 years. They are in good ... condition.” Sibyl Silver, who brought Torahs to Boca Raton

remnants of World War II. “They haven’t been touched in 70 years,” Silver said. “They are in good but not perfect condition.” Torahs, or parchment scrolls that contain the first five books of the Old Testament, are read aloud in chapters by Jews on the Sabbath. All the 600,000 letters must be written in Hebrew by a scribe, or professional Torah writer, with a feather quill and in perfectly straight lines for the Torah to be considered kosher, or usable. Silver and her late husband, Robert, became intrigued by the Torahs after hearing a Hungarian rabbi they met in Prague tell the story of how they were found. The Nazis had sent 430,000 Hungarian Jews to concentration camps, mostly Auschwitz, in 1944 and looted their synagogues. In 1945, the Soviet Army liberated Hungary. More than 100 Torah scrolls, some torn and burnt, ended up in the Lenin Scientific Library in Nizhny Novgorod, formerly known as Gorky, 248 miles east of Moscow. In recent years, two Chabad rabbis in Russia have gotten permission to remove 10 of the scrolls to their synagogues. Silver was allowed to take three, leaving 105 that remain to be rescued. Silver has made saving the Torahs almost a fulltime job. She has visited Russia to negotiate their release to safe places in Moscow and the United States, and traveled to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to learn more about their history and find descendants of the families that donated them in Hungary. Silver wants the Torahs to become the focus of lectures, conferences and classroom discussions. Alan Berger, a Holocaust studies professor at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, said he hopes to integrate the Torahs’ arrival into his classes. “It will help me teach about the Holocaust in terms of Jewish life before the tragedy,” Berger said, “as well as the vitality and vibrancy of Jewish life today.” Silver said she wants to raise $180,000 for each Torah. Money will go toward restoration of the Boca Raton Torahs, funding for Jewish schools in Nizhny Novgorod and recovery of additional Judaica from Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, Silver will return to Russia in October to negotiate the release of additional scrolls to safe places. She said she sees the project as a good way to fill her time in retirement. “It beats mah-jongg and canasta, my dear,” she said. The Torah celebration begins at 10 a.m. Sunday at Boca Raton Synagogue, 7900 N. Montoya Circle. Call 561-394-0384 for more information.

CARLINE JEAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Rabbi Efrem Goldberg, of Boca Raton Synagogue, examines Torahs which will be housed at his congregation.

MARK RANDALL/STAFF FILE PHOTO Sibyl Silver obtained three Hungarian Torahs.