The Lithuanian Jewish Community is tremendously grateful to Judah Passow for his initiative in bringing the 350-year-old Torah scroll back to Vilnius.

Those assembled at the Choral Synagogue in Vilnius June 27 waited in anticipation of something extraordinary: for the carrying in of a 350-year-old Torah scroll, from the period when the Vilna Gaon walked among us, a witness to the Vilnius of the 17th century, experiencing all the passages and changes together with the Jews, used for innumerable bar mitzvah ceremonies until it ended up in the Vilnius ghetto during World War II, and miraculously survived the Holocaust.

In 1960 professor Passow of the University of Philadelphia in the United States came to Vilnius after receiving support from the Rockefeller Foundation to commemorate Jewish communal life behind the iron curtain. Jews in Vilnius asked him to take with him one of two Vilnius ghetto Torah scrolls to survive the Holocaust, uncertain about the future of Jewish life in the Soviet Union. That’s how the Torah entered into the Passow family and was used in three bar mitzvahs. The family protected the scroll for 56 years. Last year the professor’s son, London-based photojournalist Judah Passow, came to Vilnius for an exhibition of his photographic works and spoke with LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky. This year he’s come back with the Torah scroll with a silver ornament his mother made.

By all indications this scroll is a typical Litvak-type scroll, judging from the parchment and the number of lines in a column which are characteristic only of Litvaks and Jews from Bohemia in the 17th century. Passow said it’s possible it was the Torah used at the Gaon’s own bar mitzvah.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky thanked the Passow family for their trust and confidence in giving the scroll over to the Vilnius community. The Torah scroll will now be housed in the synagogue in Vilnius and all Lubavich chassidim and mitnagedim, all who believe in the Most High, have plenty of room to come and pray with it and live together peacefully.

Ambassador from Israel Amir Maimon welcomed everyone to the synagogue on the happy occasion which had more of the air of a holiday.

Cantor Shmuel Yatom sang joyfully and danced, drawing the attention of those photographing and filming the ceremony.

Rabbi Kalev Krelin said the Torah scroll was more than just a physical item, it’s intended for learning, and Lithuania has always had a great tradition of Torah study. He called upon youth to come and learn.
The men in the synagogue danced powerfully to music and there were cries of “mazl tov!” Surrounded by dancers, a rabbi raised the old Torah scroll above his head and the celebration continued. And continues.

Photo album on facebook here.