Jerusalem – An 18th-century Torah scroll that mysteriously disappeared from the Gaza Strip community of Neve Jerusalem – Dekalim during the 2005 disengagement has resurfaced on eBay, and has been sold to the highest bidder.
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The scroll is said to have belonged to a German Jewish community before the Holocaust, and survived the war mostly unscathed.
After the war, the scroll was purchased by an English family, who donated it to the Naot Katif elementary and middle school in Neve Dekalim in 1999. However, during the disengagement, it was one of two Torah scrolls that went missing along with other items from the school’s synagogue.
Now the scroll has reappeared on on the on-line auction site, where it is listed as sold for a winning bid of about $1,500. While the site does not say when the item was first listed for sale, bidding for the Torah scroll began in late November. The seller, listed only as “tlv-vintage,” posted the item’s location as Ramat Gan.
The seller’s description of the item goes on to mention that “the settlement was evacuated two years ago, and they had no use to it [sic]…I bought that beautiful item.”
But Ephraim Tashnady, the former principal of Naot Katif, refuted that statement, telling The Jerusalem Post by phone on Thursday, “There’s no way we sold it to him. Before we left Neve Dekalim, the security forces told us, ‘Don’t touch anything, we’ll come and pack everything up and move it for you.’ The Education Ministry was supposed to be responsible for all of the items, because they belonged to the school, and they said that everything was going to be put in containers and moved.”
However, a couple of months after the disengagement, Tashnady became concerned since no one had contacted him regarding the items taken from the synagogue.
“It wasn’t just the Torah scroll,” he said. “We’re talking about all of the synagogue’s furniture, the aron kodesh [ark], everything. These are very important and unique pieces. The children used to to attend prayers in that synagogue every day.”
Tashnady, who now resides in the Nitzan community of former Gush Katif residents, began trying to contact various government offices for help in locating the items, but to no avail.
“I tried the Education Ministry, other ministries, and no one seemed to have any idea where these items had disappeared to. We tried everyone, but nothing has happened. I recently heard something about the other scroll, but it wasn’t very specific. Now, suddenly, we’re hearing these reports that this scroll has appeared on the Internet. I hope it’s true – we’d love to find out what happened to it.”
Tashnady admitted that his was a purely emotional attachment to the items.
“I personally renovated the synagogue, so I’m quite attached to these pieces emotionally,” Tashnady continued. “But what can I do? I’m not the police or the Shabak, I’m just a simple citizen. I’ve been waiting for three years to hear something about these items, but I’ve gotten no answers. All I could do was cry.”
Can anyone protest that on eBay?
What do you mean by asking ‘what can I do’ – get off your butt and hire a lawyer and sue the seller and the ministry; call the police and charge the seller with theft; get on the phone and call ebay – and inform them (tape it) that the sale is illegal stolen property and they are liable for assisting.
If it is stolen you can report the item to eBay and they will remove it.
The fact that Mr Tashnady left the torah scrolls for the security ‘officials’ to take care of show his ‘concern’ for them, no one in their right mind who has a real care for sifrei torah would leave them behind
Unbelievable shocking story! Well if stealing children is no problem for them, then why would stealing a Torah be a problem? Yaldei Teiman Yoichichee!!!
It sounds like a repeat of the kidnapped Yemenite children and babies where the government of Israel “did not know” where they were. Same lying government, same criminals tens of years later. Must be something there that brings about such corrupt ministers.
what did the other insitutions with sifrei torah do?????
I sell antique books for a living, and have dealt with this seller. He is a long time seller, and this is not at all his first time selling antique Torah Scrolls. I think it is possible that some Israeli official made a few quick dollars by finding the nearest dealer which happened to be him, but I would have checked to make sure it was clean if I were him.
On the other hand if he knew it was stolen, why state that it was from Gush Katif, he could have left that out.
One more crooked dealer is no surprise, this is one thing that amazed me throughout my life, why would a crook choose to sell Judaica for a profession. Sell anything but that, totally weird.
Tragedy on top of tragedy.
And this shocks you? These are the same people that would sell their soul for a million dollars. Selling g-ds bible is not shocking although it should be!
I am wondering if this is the only thing Bernie Madoff did not steal the last few weeks.
It’s easy for you to talk about what he should have done. Were you thrown out of your home by soldiers?
The auction has not yet finished and it can be easily stopped or suspended. It still has left 2 days 22 hours before the bidding is closed.
The irreligious Israeli government strikes again…
They got nothing when the people of Yamit were abused by the government. History repeated itself in 2005.
As Avreme’le says, the auction ends on Dec-21-08. I’ve reported it using eBay’s reporting mechanism as potential stolen property, referring to this post.
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Ironically one of the pictures of the different dapim of this tora is a page where it says *LO TIGNOV* go figure
For all those using this event to rip apart the medina once again – Was it the Israeli Gov’t that went around stealing sifrai torah all over NY in the 1980s? Were they the mochrai seforim who were caught pimping themselves by fencing the stolen sifrai torah?
If Ephraim Tashnady sang ‘Hatikva’ before and believed in the state I don’t think he is now.
Sad, tragic
1500 for a Torah? Well if the authorities won’t do anything, anyone who can afford it should bid on it and try to redeem this one.
the sefer torah still isnt sold YET ! nowhere if u reread the listing does it say gush katif nor was it revised either