French Cardinal Donates Sefer Torah to R’ Tendler

R' Moshe Tendler and R' Norman Lamm examine the Torah

A centuries-old Sefer Torah finally found a home when it was donated to RIETS Rosh Yeshiva, R’ Moshe Tendler and Yeshiva University. The Torah, which is at least two hundred years-old, was given to R’ Tendler by Cardinal Jean Marie Lustiger, the Cardinal of Paris. Lustiger, who was born Jewish, but was raised by Catholic nuns who hid him during the Holocaust, came into possession of the Torah because it too was hidden by a Catholic priest during the Nazi Occupation of Poland.

Surviving the Holocaust

Much of what is known about the Torah was related by Cardinal Lustiger. A Sephardic Rabbi named Yehoshua ben Yosef got caught in Europe during the beginning of the Holocaust. He was in possesion of this Sefer Torah and decided to hide it from the approaching Nazis. R’ Ben Yosef cut up the Torah along its seams and divided the sections into piles approximating the five Books of Moses. He folded the sections to fit into the lining of an overcoat.

The Rabbi and his wife, a friend of his named Nathan Pensky and his wife, and their son Stanislaw Pensky were sent to the Lodz ghetto each with a section of this Torah in their overcoats. They wore the Torah in these coats throughout their time in the ghetto hoping that one day they could leave to put it back together.

Unfortunately, they discovered that the ghetto was scheduled to be liquidated. They knew that they would all be deported and were certain that they, and therefore the Torah, could not stay together.

Outside the ghetto, lived a priest named Remano who had known the Pensky family. This priest provided the people of the ghetto with food and news of the outside world using Stanislaw as his go-between. R’ Ben Yosef decided that before the liquidation, they would give the five overcoats to Remano along with their five identity cards and if any of them survived they would return and claim the Torah.

All of them died in Auschwitz/Birkenau.

The priest, of course, had no way of knowing this. He kept the Torah hidden hoping that one day the survivors would return. He told only the members of his family, who in turn, helped the priest with his mission. The preist died without any survivors coming forward and the family kept the secret so no one knew about the Torah, but, in recognition of the work Remano performed for the Jews of the Lodz ghetto, he was given the status of a "Riteous Gentile" and a tree was planted in his honor at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

The Journey to America

The Sefer Torah was discovered and brought to the attention of the Catholic Church. It wound up in the hands of Cardinal Lustiger in Paris.

Cardinal Lustiger wanted this Torah to go to an Orthodox Rabbi who was prominent in the American Jewish community. Although he had never met R’ Tendler, he knew of him and decided to donate the Torah to him. R’ Tendler is donating the Torah to YU.

On Wednesday, January 28, emissaries of the Cardinal brought the Sefer Torah to YU and met with R’ Tendler and R’ Norman Lamm, the University President.

Together Again

Somewhere between the end of World War Two and when the Church discovered the Torah, it was repaired. The Torah does not resemble our Torahs today. While modern Sofrim use ox parchment for writing a Torah, the Lodz Torah is dark in appearance and obviously not ox parchment. However, the sections were sewn back together and the stiching is reinforced with ox parchment. An examination by R’ Tendler confirmed that the parchment used is a goat-skin, but finished with a dark brown varnish that is rarely seen today. The Torah was made to be mounted in a case like traditional Sefardic Torahs.

Dr. M. Serels looked at the style of the writing and determined that it is indeed written in a version of Sephardic Script, probably originating from Morocco. Some of the letters must have been missing at one point because a sofer, perhaps the one who put the Torah back together, corrected or added letters but in Ashkenazi script.

R’ Tendler seemed mystified about the gift from a Cardinal he has never met. However, he sees a lesson here for the students of YU. "Hashem promised Rachel Imaynu ‘V’shavim Banim L’gvulom,’ [sons will return to their boundaries,] her children will one day return to Eretz Yisroel. This is a case of V’shav Gvulom L’Banim, their boundaries are returned to the sons. The Torah sets our boundaries and this one has come back to us."