Learning from Yorkshire’s Holocaust Torah ​​scrolls

Project team

Professor Jay Prosser (School of English)

Memorial Scrolls Trust

Cultural Collections and Galleries, University of Leeds

Dr Eva Frojmovic, Director of the Centre of Jewish Studies, University of Leeds

Project overview

This project reunites Holocaust Torah scrolls now on long-term loan to different organisations in Yorkshire, including Jewish communities and the University of Leeds Cultural Collections & Galleries. A Torah scroll is a ​manuscript ​on parchment of the Hebrew bible, a text central to not only Jewish but Muslim and Christian communities as well as world culture. Strict religious rules surround their handling, yet scrolls are read from weekly by Jewish communities. Scrolls rescued from the Holocaust such as these are precious, powerfully symbolic objects, since they are among the few relics to have survived the near erasure of the communities who used them. The first of its kind on this topic, this project allows charities, religious/cultural communities, an archive and researchers to learn from each other’s different connection to ​​Holocaust Torah scrolls. The result will be a multidimensional story of Holocaust Torah scrolls not possible without all collaborating partners.