A Torah scroll whose pages of sacred...

A Torah scroll whose pages of sacred text served as wallpaper in a cabin near Kiev during World War II will be rededicated by its rescuer in Westwood on Sunday. Here is its story.

On a freezing night in 1942, Tibor Goldstein and Herschel Adler--then soldiers in the Czechoslovakian army assigned to search out Nazi positions--knocked on the door of a thatched-roof house in the Ukraine. A blind, elderly Russian man came to the door. He fed the starving, exhausted young men and offered them lodging on the floor next to the hearth. He did not know they were Jews.

Asleep for three straight days, Goldstein was awakened by his partner. “You must see what is on the walls!” Adler whispered. Tacked along the walls of the one-room domicile was a Torah, the first five books of the Bible, hand-lettered in Hebrew. Goldstein surmised that it had been placed in the blind man’s house for safekeeping by a Jew from a neighboring village. He quietly took it down, folded it neatly and placed it in his backpack, where it stayed until the end of the war.

Three years later, Adler’s story ended. Goldstein recounts: “He took out a platoon to fight the Germans in Austria and was killed, along with most of his men.”

But Goldstein’s story, and that of the Torah, continued. After the war, he searched for his sweetheart, Isabella Lebovits, who had been taken, at age 17, to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. The Red Cross located her in Sweden in late 1945; she had survived incarceration in five concentration camps.

Tibor and Isabella came to America in 1953, bringing along the Torah and their first child, a daughter. Two more children were born later. Unable to use his engineering degree because he spoke no English, Goldstein worked as a painter. Eventually, he became a general contractor. Now he is 77 and Isabella is 66. The family has increased by four grandchildren.

Meanwhile, scribes in New York and Los Angeles determined that the Torah was at least five centuries old. It was complete--but torn, faded and water-stained. Jewish law specifies that a Torah must not be used for study or worship if it is not letter-perfect and ritually restored.

In 1989, the intricate and painstaking work necessary to repair the rare scroll was begun, using fragments from scrolls found in England and Israel. The work completed, the Goldsteins will give the Torah that Tibor Goldstein has kept for 51 years to their synagogue, Sinai Temple, which will dedicate it in commemoration of the Holocaust.

The ceremony will take place at 9 a.m. Sunday at Sinai Temple, 10400 Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood. Rabbis Allan Schranz and Zvi Dershowitz will speak.

Commenting on the relevance of the dedication of the scroll at a time of racial tension surrounding the Rodney G. King federal civil rights trial and the pending trial of the men accused of beating trucker Reginald O. Denny, Dershowitz said: “Honoring the Torah, which contains the basis of Western law, culture and civilization, reminds us that humanity has to act on the level of justice and compassion and righteousness--not on the basis of instinctive response using force or threat of force.

“The Holocaust is the symbol of the opposite--human hatred and destruction and everything that is base in humanity,” he said.

HOLOCAUST PROGRAMS

Many organizations will commemorate the Holocaust in the coming days. Some programs are listed below. All commemorative programs are free and open to the public.

Novelist Leon Uris, author of “Mila 18,” is the keynote speaker at a citywide Holocaust remembrance observance commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising at 5 p.m. Sunday at Pan Pacific Park, Beverly Boulevard and Gardner Street, Los Angeles. Cantor Nathan Lam and the Yavneh Hebrew Academy Choir will perform. Sponsored by the Martyrs Memorial and Museum of the Holocaust and the Los Angeles Holocaust Monument. (213) 651-3175.

Twelve churches and two synagogues in Burbank will sponsor the city’s sixth annual Days of Remembrance at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at First United Methodist Church. Concentration camp survivors and liberators will tell of their experiences. Ministers, priests and rabbis will participate in a service and memorial candle lighting. The program has been coordinated with the aid of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. 700 N. Glenoaks Blvd. (818) 842-3935.

Occidental College holds a musical commemoration at noon Tuesday on the college quad in Eagle Rock. Cantor Mark Levy and Kol Isha, a trio that sings a cappella, will perform in Hebrew, English, Yiddish and Latin. (213) 259-2959.

“Holocaust Implications for Today” will be discussed by Fred Benjamin, a survivor, from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday at Caltech, sponsored by campus organizations. 415 S. Hill Ave., Pasadena. (818) 356-6163.

An exploration of the impact of Nazi ideology and aesthetics on German actors, playwrights, directors, musicians, composers and academicians will be sponsored by the Martyrs Memorial and Museum of the Holocaust of the Jewish Federation Council, the Max Kade Institute, the Goethe Institute and Second Generation of Los Angeles at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Goethe Institute. Scholars from Germany and the United States will speak. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 651-3175.

DATES

Pepperdine University celebrates the golden anniversary of its Bible lectures on the Malibu campus, April 27-30. The annual event draws about 4,000 people from nearly all states and abroad. Max Lucado will deliver the keynote address, “Tell Me the Story,” on April 27. Other speakers include Mike Cope, Larry James, Tom Olbricht, Harold Shank, Jeff Walling and Tim Woodroof. For a schedule and information about registration, housing, meal tickets and banquet programs, phone (310) 456-4270.

Native American Awareness Sunday will be celebrated at Garden Grove United Methodist Church with guest sermons by the Rev. Kenneth Deere at 9 and 10:30 a.m. services. Deere is an ordained elder and past district superintendent of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference and a member of the Muskogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma. An Indian storytelling program will be available for children. A meal and performance by the Boy Scouts Order of the Arrow will follow the services. 12741 Main St. (714) 534-1070.

Project Rebound, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, offers a free workshop at the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m. April 25. An outgrowth of last year’s riots, Project Rebound began last summer to offer counseling and support to people affected by the riots. 2936 W. 8th St., Los Angeles. (213) 389-1356.

Send notices to: Southern California File, c/o Religion Editor, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, Calif. 90053. Fax: (213) 237-4712. Items must be brief and must arrive at least three weeks before the event announced.