Angela Merkel puts finishing touches on scroll that survived Kristallnacht

German Chancellor Angela Merkel came to see the finishing touches put to the government-funded refurbishment of the 18th century Sulzbacher Torah in the capital Berlin last week.

The Sulzbacher Torah survived the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938 and lay unnoticed for decades in a cabinet in a synagogue in Amberg, Bavaria, until 2015, sparking the process to bring it back to a ritually usable
condition.

The German government contributed £40,000 to the restoration for it to be used once again for services in the Amberg synagogue, and Merkel watched as Rabbi Shaul Nekrich inscribed the final 12 letters of the scroll.

The chancellor, who steps down following elections in September, has been a consistent champion of Germany’s Jewish community and an ardent ally of Israel.

She heard how the Torah was written for the synagogue in Sulzbach, Bavaria, before it was moved to Amberg in 1934, one year after Hitler took power.