Obj. ID: 56828
Memorials Memorial to the Holocaust (Shoah) victims in Temple Sinai in Sharon, MA, USA, 2000 (?)
To the main object: Temple Sinai in Sharon, MA, USA - interior
Memorial Name
Holocaust Torah and Memorial
Who/What is Commemorated?
Victims of the Holocaust
Description:
Tucked into a wide hallway that widen to serve as a vestibule to the sanctuary is a tall wooden and glass cabinet. It has a dramatically angled top that suggests the disequilibrium of a broken world. The front of the cabinet has four panels in the central part, which are framed by a wide flat wood surface. The top panel is dark glass into which are etched the Hebrew world Zachor followed by the English exhortation “Never Again,” beneath which are etched flames. The names of eleven concentration and death camps and killing sites are applied to the wood surface flanking the central panels: five on one side of the central panels and six on the other.
A larger clear glass panel fronts a display area in which a “Holocaust Torah,” was originally displayed as a memorial to Holocaust victims. Since the memorial cabinet was built, however, the Torah scroll has been repaired and is now housed in the sanctuary aron-ha-kodesh (ark). A large photo of the Torah scroll fills the space. Below this, near the bottom of the cabinet, is a smaller display area, and below that two small doors that open to a storage compartment
A new covering that references the Holocaust has been made for the Holocaust Torah.
Inscriptions:
זכור
Never Again
Names of camps:
Theresienstadt
Majdanek
Sobibor
Bergen-Belsen
Dachau
Buchenwald
Auschwitz
Babi Yar
Treblinka
Chelmno
Belzec
Commissioned by
Temple Sinai
sub-set tree: 
Glass
The congregation’s Holocaust Torah scroll dates to the late 1700s. It is one of the last remaining artifacts of the Jewish community of Prestice, Czech Republic. The Torah scroll was presented on permanent loan to Temple Sinai in March 1990 from the Memorial Scrolls Trust. The scroll was damaged with holes, missing letters, and seams that needed to be resewn, and was considered unfit for religious use. The scroll sat in a display case for 25 years and was only taken out for Holocaust memorial events.
In 2014 the congregation hired Rabbi Kevin Hale, a trained sofer STaM or Torah scribe to evaluate and restore the precious scroll to a useable condition. On October 4, 2015, Temple Sinai celebrated the completion of the restoration project. Czech Memorial Scroll Number 655 now is used for simchas as well as for Holocaust memorial events. The congregation remembers the community of Prestice each year on the Shabbat closest to November 26, 1942, the date of the community’s final transport to the death camps.
Barnes, Jeanette. “Temple in Sharon celebrates restoration of Torah saved from Nazis,” The Boston Globe, (Oct 2,3 2015), https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/south/2015/10/22/temple-sharon-celebrates-restoration-torah-saved-from-nazis-bohemia/pvIteaBhEAR7RG8bDN4vRM/story.html (accessed April 3, 2025)
Lambert, Lane. “Saved from the Holocaust, a Torah scroll comes 'back to life,” The Patriot Ledger, (Oct. 2, 2015), https://www.patriotledger.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2015/10/02/saved-from-holocaust-torah-scroll/33363319007/ (accessed April 3, 2025)
“Holocaust Torah Scroll,” Temple Sinai., https://www.temple-sinai.com/worship-music/holocaust-torah-scroll (accessed April 3, 2025)