Evelyn Friedlander: Czech Memorial Scrolls Museum

Evelyn Friedlander

The Story of the Czech Scrolls Museum

The Czech Memorial Scrolls Museum houses an exhibition which tells the story of how 1564 Torah Scrolls and 400 Torah binders came from Prague to London in 1964, how they came to be in Prague and what subsequently happened to them. Most of the Scrolls have been sent on long-term loan to communities and museuma all over the world and have become important and tangible focal points for their new communities as they strive to come to terms with the Holocaust. These Scrolls came from hundreds of small rural places and are often the only survivors as all the people were murdered. The Torah binders add up to a unique textile collection, probably the largest of its kind in this country and a hitherto unknown study opportunity.

Evelyn Friedlander is the Chair of the Memorial Scrolls Trust and is the Director of its Museum which was opened in September 2008. She has organised exhibitions on rural Jewish life which have been shown in Germany, England, Czech Republic, Austria and the USA. The last one was on the Jews of Devon and Cornwall and was exhibited throughout the West Country. She is currently working on a book about Judaica in England, dealing with the section on textiles while other specialists will deal with silver and manuscripts.

The Museum hosts occasional loan exhibitions such as The Second Life of Czech Torah Scrolls (from the Prague Jewish Museum) and Krakow’s Jews between the Wars (from Krakow’s International Cultural Centre).