Across the country, stolen Torahs mystify police and stun congregations
Ton Cremers (Museum Security Network / MuSeCo)
By KATE CERVE- McClatchy Newspapers
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - During services in May, Rabbi Yosef Landa opened the holy
ark in his St. Louis-area synagogue and reached for the sacred Torah.
Kansas City Star/MCT
Rabbi Vered Harris reads from the Torah at Congregation Beth Torah in
Overland Park, Kansas, on Thursday, July 10, 2008. At least four Torahs have
been stolen from U.S. synagogues in the past year.
http://www.kansascity.com
Stunned, he stopped. Members of the congregation gasped. One of two Torah
scrolls stored in the repository was missing.
The handwritten scroll is valued at about $30,000 - about the same as the
three other Torah scrolls stolen in the past year in the United States.
The thefts mystify police and the Jewish community.
"It's absolutely not common," said David Pollock, associate director of the
Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
No one seems certain of a motive, but speculation includes a hate crime or
selling the sacred documents on the black market.
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For now, some congregations in the Kansas City area are paying special
attention to security.
"It's just very odd what people steal," said Jack Feldman, executive
director of Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, Kan.
"You would guess that they'd take copper piping or something they can just
grab, but I never would have guessed that this is something people would
want to take."
The crimes vary, and authorities have not found a link.
The University City scroll near St. Louis had last been seen in the ark a
week earlier. Police Capt. Mike Ransom said police had no leads and found no
sign of forced entry into the building, which was locked.
In April, two Torah scrolls and a laptop computer were stolen from a
synagogue in Kenosha, Wis. Another Torah and an overhead projector were
taken from a high school in a St. Paul, Minn., suburb in September.
In Miami Beach, Fla., a Chabad house burned down in April. Police suspect
that a Torah was taken before the fire started because investigators found
no remnants of the scroll inside the ark and a rabbi found a piece of the
Torah's wooden post outside the next day.
Torah scrolls, entirely handwritten in Hebrew by a scribe, contain the five
books of Moses. New scrolls cost between $30,000 and $50,000 to produce,
based on the cost of a Torah's completely organic materials and the scribe's
labor. On average, a scribe who works six to eight hours a day produces one
Torah each year.
"For people who don't know Judaism, this is not like a book," said Karen
Aroesty, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Missouri and
southern Illinois. "It's not a book that's been taken but a centerpiece of
religious observance."
Torah theft was common 20 or 30 years ago, Pollock said. Back then, security
was minimal and a few hundred scrolls disappeared each year.
The scrolls were hard to track down. Because of the particular materials and
specific style of calligraphy used to produce them, they generally look
alike to an untrained eye. According to Jewish law, no visible identifying
marks can deface a Torah.
In 1982, Jewish organizations stepped up security. Pollock and others
founded the Universal Torah Registry, which uses a superfine needle to give
the sacred scrolls unique serial numbers.
Still, thefts have occurred.
A Leawood, Kan., man pleaded guilty to stealing two scrolls from an Overland
Park synagogue in 1992. The man contacted the synagogue about a week after
taking the scrolls and said he might be able to get them back but it might
require money.
For the most part, though, police investigating this year's Torah thefts are
stumped. None has been recovered.
"I was unaware there was really any market for a Torah," Ransom said. "You
don't pawn something like that."
Evidently, there might be a market.
Aroesty drew parallels between Torah theft and the market for stolen art or
jewelry.
"If somebody would buy a $40 million van Gogh, why wouldn't somebody buy a
Torah?" she said.
It wouldn't be an easy transaction, though.
To resell a Torah for what it's worth, a thief needs access to the
legitimate market for previously owned Torahs, Pollock said. Scribes who buy
and sell pre-owned scrolls normally question a person's possession of them
thoroughly, Pollock said.
But that doesn't always happen - especially with the advent of online
auction sites, like eBay, where pre-owned Torah scrolls are available.
"People on eBay are looking for a bargain and will buy a Torah without
asking the questions they should, because if they don't buy now, someone
else will," said Rabbi Moshe Druin, a scribe and Torah dealer in Miami
Beach, Fla..
An eBay spokeswoman said the company does not allow anything illegal to be
sold on the Web site and works with law enforcement and industry
associations to ensure that.
The bottom line is, valuable scrolls are missing and hard to find. In
response to recent thefts, synagogues have invested in safeguards.
An Overland Park synagogue boosted security after hearing about the St.
Louis-area theft.
Congregation Beth Torah had an alarm system in place, complete with motion
sensors. About a month ago, the synagogue also began locking its ark to
better protect its Torah scrolls, one of which is 260 years old and valued
at between $50,000 and $75,000.
"We want to make it as difficult to get in there as possible," Feldman of
Congregation Beth Torah said.
Congregation Beth Shalom, which has locations in Kansas City and Overland
Park, is also committed to the security of its scrolls, which are protected
by a building alarm system.
The congregation's scrolls are among 10,000 worldwide that are registered
with the Universal Torah Registry, which makes re-sale more difficult.