Moshav shocked by holiday theft of Torah ornaments

As worshippers across the country celebrated the Simhat Torah holiday yesterday by singing and dancing with Torah scrolls, members of Moshav Nevatim in the south awoke to find their scrolls shorn of valuable 300-year-old decorations from the Jewish community of India.

Unidentified thieves broke into the moshav synagogue early yesterday and stole six Torah crowns worth hundreds of thousands of shekels, two made of gold and four of silver.

The crowns, used to decorate the scrolls, have great historic and sentimental value for the moshav members, some of whom brought with them the centuries-old ritual objects - along with the Torah scrolls themselves - when they immigrated from Cochin, India.

Other items used to decorate the Torah scrolls were also stolen, including 10 Torah bells, known as rimonim.

"The feeling in the moshav is awful," said the community's security officer, Giora Yitzhak, who was called to the scene by residents yesterday morning. "The most terrible thing is that the theft took place on Simhat Torah, a day when we celebrate with the scrolls with dancing and singing."

Police suspect the thieves came from the nearby Bedouin town of Tel Sheva.

Several moshav members broke into tears at the sight of the Torah scrolls missing their antique embellishments. Nevatim is the center of Cochin Jewry in Israel, and the synagogue where the theft took place is a replica of a synagogue from the region of southwestern India where the community hails from. The style of the purloined crowns and bells is unique to Cochin Jewry, moshav residents said.

The thieves did not have to search far to find the loot. In keeping with Cochin tradition, on the eve of the holiday the synagogue had placed the Torah scrolls on a platform decorated for Simhat Torah, leaving them out for all to see.

"The Torah scrolls, the crowns and the rimonim have been with the moshav residents for many years," said moshav official Avraham Or. "Generation upon generation of people from Cochin grew up on this tradition. When we discovered the theft, all the residents were dispirited, and the moshav was filled with great sadness."