A Jewish congregation in Yorktown has begun a campaign to restore a 150-year-old Torah that was rescued from the Holocaust.

Temple Beth Am, the oldest Reform Jewish congregation in Yorktown, was founded in 1963. In 1967, the congregation was given custody of the 150-year-old Torah. The scroll contains the first five books of the bible and is central to Jewish worship and faith. Until the start of WWII, the Torah had been in possession of a congregation somewhere in Czechoslovakia.

The Torah is now showing signs of age and mistreatment. Pages, which are made of parchment, are torn and sometimes held together by Scotch tape. In many areas the ink is fading or peeling off.

It is thought the cost of "healing" the Torah could run as high as $40,000. The goal is to have the work finished within a year. The temple board has now begun a fundraising effort to pay for the work, which the temple?s president hopes will directly involve members of the congregation.Related Information Temple Beth Am