A fragment of a sefer Torah dating to the second half of the 18th century has been discovered in the attic of a private home in the Belarusian city of Novogrudok, where it appears to have been hidden by a Jewish family during the Nazi occupation and left undisturbed for more than 80 years.
The fragment was discovered by Viktor Vasilyuk, a local artist whose relatives had lived in the home. His mother’s maiden name was Katz, and according to family accounts, relatives fled the Novogrudok Ghetto during the war, changing their surname to survive. Before escaping, they concealed the parchment in the attic beneath straw. Some of the parchment sheets were even used to cover the floor — apparently to further disguise them.
Experts at the National Library of Belarus examined the fragment and dated it to the second half of the 1700s, based in part on the characteristics of the ink, which has a reddish hue typical of that era. They believe the fragment was written by a sofer using the precise halachic method required for writing sifrei Torah.
The Novogrudok Ghetto was established by the Nazis in December 1941. Of the approximately 10,000 Yidden held there, nearly all were murdered. Only around 350 survived.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
