The Lost London Society Kaifeng Scroll?

         


I have made a list of Michael Pollak's tally of the missing and extant Kaifeng Torah Scrolls:


These are scrolls that were in Western hands, so to speak, and still are, but in the case of the Hong Kong, London Society, and Volontari scrolls, these were in Western hands but have gone missing. The Hong Kong Scroll was probably lost or destroyed during the Japanese Occupation.  The London Society Scroll was moved out of London during the Blitz in the early 1940s for safe keeping and has not been seen since.  Pollak notes that a photograph in White's Chinese Jews: A Compilation of Matters Relating to the Jews of K'ai-fêng Fu:



Where says:



He makes comparisons between this scroll, and one being held by the ABS.  This looks like one of the older scrolls in the Kaifeng library, probably predating the copying initiative by the community which produced twelve new scrolls.  According to Pollak, we have seven of the thirteen Torah scrolls which were in the possession of the last synagogue at Kaifeng. To read more about the three lost Kaifeng scrolls, read pages (on the above link) for the Unnumbered Scroll at the London Society, pages 63-69.  For the Volonteri Scroll, pages 69-71, for Scroll 9, TET, the Hong Kong Scroll, pages 72-79.


the ABS scroll




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