Temple Beth Elohim is home to the Rakovnik Torah, which was written in the year 1870 and comes from the town of Rakovnik, 20 miles west of Prague, Czech Republic. The Rakovnik Torah is number 832 and is one of 1564 Czech Memorial sifrei Torah that constituted part of the valuables looted by the Nazis during World War II. These Torahs, which had been buried for safekeeping, were found and cared for by the Czech Government for many years.

Scroll number 832 arrived in Boston in 1973. It was carried into the sanctuary at TBE by Akiba Hermann, one of the youngest of 100 children to survive the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. The Torah was consecrated into our congregation and installed in a display case in the atrium. In May 2005, on Yom HaShaoh, the Rakovnik Torah was re-dedicated and re-dressed and placed permanently with our other sifrei Torah in the sanctuary. Today, we include the Rakovnik Torah in the services celebrating the b’mitzvah of descendants of Holocaust survivors.

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