Photos courtesy of "Center Alef", Ukraine
Torah scrolls are removed, under protest, from a community in Zhitomir.  The sign (center) reads, in Ukrainian,  "These hands couldn't damage the holy Torah!", defying allegations that the community improperly cared for the scrolls.

---

JTA: Global Jewish News - 03.16.2007

Ukraine cleric demands return of Torahs

(JTA) — A leading Christian Orthodox cleric in Ukraine has demanded that the state return confiscated Torah scrolls to the Jewish community. Archbishop Yuriy of Donetzk and Mariupol on Monday called on Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and regional authorities in the city of Zhitomir to ensure the return of the scrolls to their original owners.

Last month, amid allegations of improper treatment of the scrolls, the Zhitomir Jewish community was forced to return 10 Torahs confiscated by Bolsheviks decades ago and lent to the community two years ago by the local state archives.

In his statement, a rare public show of solidarity with Jews by a leading Orthodox Christian cleric, the archbishop said the situation was sensitive to every believer.

"Brothers, do know, you are not alone, we are together with you," he wrote.

---

JTA: Global Jewish News - 02.23.2007

Ukrainian Jews fight confiscation of Torah scrolls by state archives

By Vladimir Matveyev 

KIEV (JTA) — Following incidents in Zhitomir and Kiev, Ukrainian Jewish leaders are protesting the seizure of Torah scrolls by the government archives. 

Most of the scrolls now being used in Ukrainian synagogues were acquired by the state archives and museums through communist and Nazi looting. 

After Ukrainian independence in 1991, in the absence of a restitution law, some of the scrolls were lent to the synagogues, but on shaky terms. Recently the archives, citing concern for the scrolls' welfare, have been reclaiming them. 

Two such incidents occurred recently. Last week, 10 scrolls were taken from a Jewish day school in Zhitomir, and this week the Kiev archives attempted to claim scrolls from the city's main synagogue. 

On Feb. 18, the Central Brodsky Synagogue in Kiev received a letter signed by the head of the Ukrainian State Archives Committee demanding that 18 scrolls lent to the Jewish community be returned to the state archives for inspection. 

The letter, which arrived just four days after the community in Zhitomir had its scrolls seized, triggered a wave of protest from community leaders, who said it was time for Ukraine to adopt a restitution law that would return scrolls to the Jews who originally owned them. 

The scrolls "belong only to the Jewish people and the Jewish communities," the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, a leading Jewish group in the country, said in a statement Wednesday. 

"The federation categorically insists on the restoration of historical justice and on the return of Torah scrolls" to religious communities and organizations, the statement said. 

The group said the issue of the scrolls should be decided as soon as possible and separately from the more complex issue of restitution of other former communal property, such as buildings seized from congregations and individuals. 

On Feb. 14, representatives of the local state archives in Zhitomir in Central Ukraine confiscated 10 scrolls from the local community, claiming they could have been damaged since they were lent to the community more than two years ago. 

Local Jewish leaders deny accusations that they altered or mishandled the scrolls. 

Olga Ginzburg, the head of the Ukrainian State Archives Committee, told JTA on Wednesday that similar safety concerns prompted her agency to request the return of the 18 scrolls lent to the Central Brodsky shul. 

"We lent the scrolls to the Jewish communities, but this is state property and we should check their safety," she said. 

The synagogue's rabbi was unimpressed by Ginzburg's reasoning. 

"These are our Torahs," Moshe Azman, also one of Ukraine's chief rabbis, told JTA. "I already sent a letter to Ginzburg telling that we won't give back our Torahs. Moreover, I demanded the return of all Torah scrolls from Ukrainian archives and museums to Jewish communities of Ukraine." 

Ginzburg said the top priority of the state archives is the safety of the scrolls. 

"We have a precedent in Zhitomir shul," she said. "We should first check the scrolls properly." 

The Central Brodsky synagogue had not violated any terns of the lending contract with her archives, the director of the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine, Olga Muzychuk, told JTA. 

"But the case in Zhitomir Jewish community has put us on alert," she said. 

It remained unclear whether other scrolls in dozens of congregations across Ukraine will similarly be taken back to the archives in the near future. 

Jewish leaders said it was unnecessary to do any checks. 

"We won't return any more Torah scrolls," All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress President Vadim Rabinovich said. "The modern Ukrainian authority shouldn't become like the Bolsheviks." 

A senior official with President Viktor Yuschenko's administration told JTA this won't happen. 

"No more returns" should take place, religious affairs official Alexander Sagan said. He told JTA that officials will promptly investigate the cases in Zhitomir and Kiev.

---

JTA: Global Jewish News - 02.16.2007

Torah scrolls confiscated from Ukrainian community

By Vladimir Matveyev 

KIEV (JTA) — As their Torah scrolls were packed into black plastic garbage bags and carried out of the Jewish school, the students and adults continued to pray, many with tears in their eyes. 

The scrolls originally belonged to the Jewish community of Zhitomir in central Ukraine, but were acquired by the local state archives through communist and Nazi looting. Since then, in the absence of a restitution law, the archives had lent the scrolls to the community -- but on shaky terms. 

On Feb. 14, the community was forced to return 10 scrolls it had received more than two years ago. Representatives of the archives carried them out of the Ohr Avner Jewish Day School, leaving the community without any scrolls. 

"This was like the medieval times, this was like a nightmare," said Oleg Rostovtsev, a spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, the country's leading Jewish umbrella group. 

The seizure was the result of a controversy that was triggered a few months ago when the officials at the Zhitomir Regional State Archives demanded the return of the scrolls, citing concern over their safety. 

In 2004, the archives handed over 17 out of 290 Torah scrolls in its possession to be used by the local Jewish community run by Chabad. 

The scrolls had been the property of the many synagogues and private Jewish households in Zhitomir, and were confiscated by communist authorities during anti-religious campaigns or seized by the Nazis during the occupation of Ukraine in World War II. 

For two-and-a-half years, the scrolls were kept in a specially designated room at the Ohr Avner school. 

Without a restitution law, many Jewish communities in the post-Soviet Ukraine were allowed to temporarily use Torah scrolls confiscated by the Bolsheviks, while most of the scrolls remain the property of state-run museums and archives. 

Such loans do not always satisfy the Jewish community. 

The Zhitomir community had previously expressed its concern that in the absence of a proper restitution act, they could not repair the borrowed scrolls in accordance with Jewish law. 

In addition, representatives of the community had to submit a petition every three months that would allow them to keep the scrolls. 

In October, representatives of the archives checked the scrolls kept in the Zhitomir school and demanded their return, claiming that at least seven of the scrolls may have been damaged while in the community's possession. 

Archive Deputy Director Natalia Shimchenko told JTA that the archive's curators had established that the "number of units" registered with the archives "did not correspond with those in the community safe." 

Local Jewish leaders deny the accusations of improper care or alterations and said the scrolls -- some of them fragmented -- were improperly catalogued in the archives. 

But the community chose not to argue, and last month returned the seven scrolls in question to the archives. 

The archives then refused to prolong the loan agreement on the remaining 10 scrolls and confiscated them Wednesday despite protests from the Jewish community and the local governor. 

"We are law-abiding citizens of Ukraine and we have not violated any laws," community leader Vladimir Rozengurten said, adding that allegations of improper care and damage were "slander." 

"The statements that we have damaged the scrolls are outrageous," Zhitomir Chief Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm said. "This is a groundless accusation, and we still have no results of the examination" of the scrolls. 

But community leaders said they had to back off, apprehensive of possible use of force by representatives of the archives. 

"I'm sure we are not saying goodbye for a long time to the Torah scrolls," Rozengurten said. 

He and other community leaders are hoping that legislation will be adopted in Ukraine dictating the return of the scrolls that were confiscated by the Bolsheviks and the Nazis.