Historic Torah taken by Nazis returned to chief rabbi six decades later

ROME (RNS) A precious 17th century Torah containing the body of wisdom and law of Jewish scripture has been returned to the chief rabbi of Rome more than six decades after it disappeared in a Nazi raid on Rome's Jewish ghetto.

Dario Tedeschi, a lawyer who heads a government commission seeking the restoration of looted Jewish property, said that the director of a library in Amsterdam turned the book over to him at a meeting in Hannover, Germany.

Tedeschi presented the small but valuable book to Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni May 23 at a ceremony in Palazzo Chigi, which houses the offices of the prime minister.

The Torah was the first of many books looted by the Nazis on Oct. 16, 1943 to be returned to the Jewish community. In the raid on the ghetto, the troops also seized 110 pounds of gold and arrested 1,022 Roman Jews to be transported to death camps.