What seems at first glance to be a small sleepy town is full of Jewish History and an awareness of its Jewish Legacy. A Jewish man named Podiva established a castle, Podivin, early in the 11th century.
Our Sefer Torah, no. 27, with its accompanying certificate, is one of the 1,564 Czech Memorial Scrolls which formed part of the Jewish treasures saved in Prague during the Nazi occupation of 1939-45. These scrolls came from the desolate communities of Bohemia and Moravia.
In 1963, the Czech Communist government approached art dealer Eric Estorick to sell the scrolls. Through the generosity of Ralph Yablon and the guidance of Rabbi Harold Reinhart of the Westminster Synagogue, 1,564 scrolls arrived in London in February 1964.
A team of sofrim (scribes) painstakingly examined each scroll to determine which could be restored to kosher status and which would remain as silent memorials to the Shoah.
The Memorial Scrolls Trust allocated Czech scrolls to synagogues around the world. These scrolls are never sold or donated, but allocated on loan. They represent not only lost communities but all those who perished in the Shoah.
The MST encourages all scroll-holders to use their scrolls for inter and intra-faith work, ritual, and education. We are proud to let the light of the Podivin community shine as a beacon at the Jacksonville Jewish Center.
We bear an everlasting witness to the holy Name.
