Holocaust Torah

The Torah was placed with PJC in 2022 from the Memorial Scrolls Trust.  The trust was established in February 1964 and includes 1,564 Czech scolls. The scrolls were rescued by Ralph Yablon during World War II; he then donated them to the Westminster Synagogue in London, where the Trust was established. In the decades since, the scrolls have found new homes in synagogues around the world.  Each scroll is considered “an intimate link with individual congregations that were destroyed by the Nazis, "the rescued Scrolls are a symbol of sorrow but also of hope as they are read and used.”  Each scroll that has “been placed to its rightful place in Jewish life, teaching and encouraging many to not only think of the six million Jews who perished but also how to stand against racism and teach the world justice, compassion, ensuring to build a better and kinder world.”   At PJC, we recognize the significance of the scroll and incorporate it into our rituals.

Our Holocaust Torah (scroll number MST#1376) was written between 150 and 200 years ago in the town of Kasejovice, a small town in SW Bohemia, district Plzen-South, 53.7 miles SW of Prague. It became a small town in the 14th century and a town in 1787.  There was a Jewish family in Kasejovice in 1570 then 4 families, and a prayer room in 1618.  24 Jewish families are recorded in the mid-18th century. , and 25 in the mid-19th century.  By 1930, there were only 28 persons of the Jewish faith.

Above is a sketch map of the former ghetto of Kasejovice showing a synagogue and cottages. The ghetto was built in 1727.  The original ground plan is mostly preserved.

The synagogue was built in 1762 in the Rococo style, rebuilt in 1832.  Filip Bondy was the first rabbi in Bohemia to preach in Czech in the mid 19th centruy.  Services were held until the 1920's, when the few remaining Jews merged into the Horazdovice congregation.  The synagogue has been renovated and is now a museum of Jewish religious objects ( which Kasejovice residents claim were returned from Horazdovice) and local pottery and handicrafts.  The cemetery was founded most probably in 1704 and is considered quite notable for its Baroque and Classicist tombstones from 1710.  The cemetery picture below is from Old Bohemian and Moravian Cemeteries.  The following description is taken from the Czech Republic section of the IAJGS Cemetery Project:

Location: 500 meters NNW of Catholic church. The German name was Kassejowitz. It is in Bohemia-Plzen-jih (Pilsen-South) at 49 28 latitude and 13 44 longitude, 15 km. NNE of Horazdovice, 30 km SW of Pribram, and 48 km SE of Plzen. Present town population: 1000-5000 with currently no Jewish population. Town officials: Obecni urad, 335 44 Kasejovice, tel. 0185/952-19 or 951-00. Regional political authorities: 1. Okresni urad-referat kultury, Radobycicka 14, 301-32 Plzen; 2. Zidovska nabozenska obec, Smetanovy sady 5, 301 37 Plzen, tel. 019/357-49; and 3. Pamatkovy ustav, Dominkanska 4/6, 301 00 Plzen, tel. 019/354-62 or 358-71. Also interested in site: 1. Statni zidovske muzeum, Jachymova 3, 110 01 Praha 1, tel. 02/231-06-34 or 231-07-85 and 2. Okresni muzeum, 336 01 Blovice cp. 148, tel. 0185/157. The key is held by caretaker: Karel Polanka, 335 44 Kasejovice cp. 108. 

A prayer room was recorded before 1618. Jewish population in 1930 was 28. Noteworthy historical events: ghetto constructed about 1727; peak Jewish population in mid-19th century (about 230 people), later moving to big towns; independent congregation abolished between 1922 and 1930. Noteworthy individuals: Rabbis Shalomon (1651) and Jakub Lazar (1783). The cemetery was probably established in 1704. The last known burial was before 1943. The Jewish community was Conservative. Other towns and villages that used this cemetery were Podhuri, 5 km away; Nepomuk, 11 km away, and Blatna, 11 km away. The cemetery is not land-marked.

The cemetery location is rural (agricultural), on a hillside and at the crown of a hill, and isolated with no sign. The cemetery is reached by turning directly off a public road. Access to the cemetery is open with permission. The cemetery is surrounded by a continuous masonry wall and a gate that locks.

Size of cemetery before and after WWII: 0.3086 hectares. 100-500 gravestones are in cemetery, regardless of condition or position with 100-500 in original location and 1-20 not in original locations. Less than 25% of surviving stones toppled or broken. Some stones removed from the cemetery are in (another) cemetery in Kasejovice. The oldest legible gravestone is from 1710. Tombstones in the cemetery are datable from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The marble, granite, limestone, and sandstone tombstones and memorial markers are flat shaped stones, finely smoothed and inscribed stones, flat stones with carved relief decoration, double tombstones, and multi-stone monuments, some with metal fences around graves, inscribed in Hebrew, German, and/or Czech. The cemetery contains no known mass graves. Within the limits of the cemetery, there is a pre-burial house.

The present owner of the property, used only for Jewish cemetery purposes, is the Jewish community of Plzen. Properties adjacent to the cemetery are agricultural and residential. The cemetery is visited occasionally by private visitors. The cemetery was vandalized between 1945 and ten years ago but not in the last 10 years. Past maintenance: re-erection of stones after 1971 and continual clearing of vegetation by local non-Jewish residents and Jewish individuals abroad. Current care: occasional clearing or cleaning by individuals and by a regular unpaid caretaker.

Weather erosion is a moderate threat. Name, address and telephone numbers of persons completing this survey: 1. Dr. Peter Braun, Komenskeho 43, 323 13 Plzen, tel. 019/52-15-58; 2. Rudolf Lowy, Jesenicka 33, 323 23 Plzen, tel. 019/52-06-84; and 3. Jiri Fiedler, Brdickova 1916, 155 00 Praha 5, tel. 02/55-33-40 on 1 September 1992 using the following documentation: 1. Die Juden und Judengemeinden Bohmens...(1934); Jan Pelant: Mesta a mestecka Zapadoceskeho kraje (1984); Jan Herman: Jewish Cemeteries in Bohemia and Moravia (1980); V. Mentberger: Kasejovicti zide (manuscript); and notes of Statni zidovske muzeum Praha.. The site was visited, on 26 May 1992, by Braun and Lowy. K. Polanka in Kasejovice was interviewed.

For more information about the Jews of Kasejovice visit 
https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~susanb/genealogy/thejewsofkasejovice.htm

The Holocaust Torah is on permanent loan from the Memorial Scrolls Trust in London.  For more information visit www.memorialscrollstrust.org