The sacred Czech Torah scrolls, rescued after the Nazis had looted synagogues and thrown the scrolls into a synagogue in Prague, Czech Republic. MICHAEL SHOCKET
GREAT BARRINGTON â Rabbi Neil Hirsch opens a centuries-old Torah scroll that was seized by the Nazis. The sacred document now lives here, at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire.
Though it is estimated to be more than 200 years old, it is used frequently. Most [of the Czech scrolls] are not in good enough shape, he said.
At 1 p.m. Tuesday, the Jewish Broadcasting Service will air a documentary, The Messenger, which tells the story of these scrolls, and two other Holocaust films by New Marlborough filmmaker Michael Shocket, a London native who is a member of Hevreh. The broadcast comes in time for Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins Thursday.