Hungarian Rabbi Finds 103 Stolen Sifei Torah Taken During Holocaust

Hungarian Jewish leaders said on Tuesday they had begun talks with Russian authorities over the return of a huge collection of religious items looted by the Red Army during World War II.

The collection, which includes 103 Sifrei Torah, was found last year in a museum in Nizhny Novgorod in western Russia.

Rabbi Slomo Koves, head of the Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation, told a press conference in Budapest that the discovery was the “largest single collection of priceless sacred property of the Hungarian Jewish community confiscated in the Holocaust.”

Koves was part of a team of researchers who found and documented the trove last year. He told AFP that Russian authorities had “only in the last few days” begun talks on ownership and restitution.

Most of the Sifrei Torah are damaged and could cost “thousands of dollars” each to restore, he said. Read more at NDTV.

{Matzav.com Newscenter}