The Missing (and Buried?) Scrolls

 

Torah Case, probably from the Kaifeng Synagogue, ROM

Of the thirteen Torah scrolls we know were in the synagogue up to the last visit of a Jesuit to the Kaifeng community in the 1723, of seven there is an account, and three are currently unaccounted. Pollak makes a tremendous effort in locating their last known locations.  He states that there is documentation that the three scrolls were purchased by westerners, but are "irretrievably lost or are held by anonymous collectors, or perhaps collectors who have no inkling of the true origin of their holdings."  Let's examine Pollak's work.

Partial, Unnumbered Scroll.  This scroll was one of the six purchased by the Chinese Delegates in 1851.  Pollak believes this is scroll number twelve.  It was in the possession of the London Society for the Promotion of Christianity among the Jews until 1924, or perhaps until 1955. This scroll appears to have come up for sale, and may have been in the agent's possession when a great many records and materials were sent to the English countryside for safety in the Second World War.  This scroll, may be among those hidden materials. 

The agent explained that "he could not rule out the possibility that one or both of the Torah scrolls in question were among the unrecorded items that had been sent to the countryside" in World War Two. The agent was Dr. M.L. Ettinghausen of Maggs Bros., London Booksellers.   Pollak believes that the mystery of this scroll, brought out from China only to be lost in England, my reside in the notes and financial records that may be the Christian Mission to the Jews, the successor agency to to London Society.  

See page 88 of Pollak's chapter for more details about this scroll: chapter.  This entry from Bodleian Library shows the London Society periodical is located here: 

 Jewish missionary intelligence and monthly record of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews.

London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews.

1893- | London : London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews | New ser., v. 9 (Jan. 1893)-v. 26 (1910) ; 3rd ser., v. 1 (1911)- | Ceased before: June 1951 | v. ; 25-29 cm.

It seems that the University College of London also  have the records of the London Society where a written record or bill of sale would be archived from Scroll 12 maybe found:

Record

•  SPCJ - London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews (now Church's Ministry Among Jewish People) Archive

StorageSite	UCL Special Collections
Level	Collection
Reference Number	SPCJ
Title	London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews (now Church's Ministry Among Jewish People) Archive
Date	1815-1963
Description	Papers of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, 1815-1963, consisting of foundation papers, 1840-1842, including 'Original by-laws and proposed alterations 1840' and 'By-laws as revised and adopted by the General Committee 1842'; minutes of the Jews and School Committee, 1815-1819, the School and Chapel Sub-Committee, 1854-1874, 1883-1890, the Jewish Refugees Aid Society Committee, 1883-1900, and various minutes of Business of the Committee, 1912-1921; certificates of baptism at Jews Chapel, Bethnal Green, 1885-1894, and health certificates and parents; signed admission conditions for children admitted to Hebrew Schools, 1891-1899; catalogue of the Society's Library, founded in 1827 by Rev Lewis Way; collection of various printed papers concerning the centenary of the Society, 1908-1909; acquired printed papers, including 'The immortality of the soul' and 'Zillah' by Rev H L Harris, 1874, 'The Jewish Quarterly Review' with inserted papers, 1899; missionary journals, reports and newsletters from Mission Stations in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool in the United Kingdom, Paris in France, Hamburg in Germany, Warsaw in Poland, Lwow (Lemberg) in the Ukraine, Bucharest in Rumania, Casablanca and Mogador in Morocco, Algiers in Algeria, Ethiopia in East Africa, Tehran and Isfahan in Iran, 1925-1939; correspondence and various other papers, 1914-1963, including 'Birmingham Jewish Prayer Union Quarterly, 1936-1939', 'Requests for Praise and Prayer', 1936-1939, and general correspondence of The Church's Ministry Among the Jews, 1962-1963.

The Volonteri Scroll.  In 1899, a priest named Simone Volonteri of Henan Vicarate, bought a Kaifeng scroll for 400 taels.  The next year, Father Jerome Tobar descried the scroll in detail.  See Pollak page 88.  Apparently in 1899, at this very late date nearly fifty years after the destruction of the synagogue, an entire Torah scroll was still present in Kaifeng!?  Tobar explains that some of the skins near the end were damaged; they were removed and sent to Paris for examination by Hebraic scholars. Pollak cites documents the bring the Torah scroll to Paris by at least 1900, for it was displayed that year at the Paris Exhibition.  That is the last known location of the scroll .  Pollak notes that in the early seventies, Father Joseph Dehregne, S.J., searched for this scroll "throughout France and Italy" but was to find no trace of it. There is nothing in the way of accessible documentation about this scroll.  Did the community really have a scroll in 1899?  

Scroll  9.  This is yet another scroll purchased by the Chinese Delegate in 1851.  It appears the scroll remained in Asia, and was housed in 1852 in the Missionary College of Saint Paul's in Hong Kong, which was under the supervision of the Bishop of Victoria. There is a report from 1868 that the text started at Genesis 29:30 but was otherwise complete. In a talk in 1902, John Fryer stated that a Kaifeng Torah scroll was under his charge  In 1913, a rabbi wrote home to his congregation that he had examined a Kaifeng Torah scroll in Hong Kong on a visit to the Ohel Leah Synagogue.  It seems the scroll had been successfully petitioned by the synagogue community to be transferred to its care.  Pollak explains that several sources cite this scroll at the Hong Kong synagogue, and he made inquiries with the synagogue and "intensive searches were made for the missing scroll, thought without success."

If this scroll was ever at the Ohel Leah Synagogue, Pollak writes, it may have been "stolen or destroyed" during the Japanese occupation. But Pollak then relates stories of a certain Karel Weiss who hid Hong Kong Torah Scrolls during the war in his apartment.  Did Weiss hide the Kaifeng Scroll?  If so, where is it now?  

In the Rhode Island Jewish Herald the January 31st, 1991 issue has this curious article:

In this column:

Here Michael Fink relates Karel Weiss's rescue of the Ohel Leah scrolls.  The wording of this article seems to imply a damaged copy of a Kaifeng scroll was at the Ohel Leah Synagogue when the author visited sometime before 1991.  Michael Fink tells the story of Karel Weiss hiding the scrolls, much as in Pollak's version.  But he adds a story about a Kaifeng scroll I am unfamiliar:

"A damaged scroll, perhaps from ancient Kaifeng, turned up on this boulevard in Thieves Market and Cat Street. Lord Kadoorie got a hold of it and placed it in the Ohel Leah synagogue.  Rabbi Lapian kindly meets me there alone and takes it out of the ark. We unroll it together.  We hunt for some special marking."

After this, Karel Weiss approaches them, and in that paragraph, where there is a confusing lack of precision in the descriptions, Weiss says to them (presumably still before the open Kaifeng scroll) "I think this Torah was carried across Europe by refugees.  Another worn scroll just moved through Hong Kong.  That one is now in Israel being scrutinized.  It is due back before Spring.  No one really knows which scroll is which."  What does this mean?

Does Weiss mean the scroll before him, the rabbi, and Fink, is an Ashkenazi scroll?  Where is this scroll?  It would seem the Kaifeng scroll was either destroyed in the war, or is still somewhere in Hong Kong/Asia.  Weiss was a beloved member of the Hong Kong community who passed away in 1994, see this link.