WEST HILLS : Sacred Scroll Furnished to Ukrainian Jews

In Hebrew, the name of the Shomrei Torah Synagogue in West Hills means Guardians of the Torah, which seems fitting to documentary filmmaker David Notowitz.

“It’s the most appropriate name you could have,” Notowitz said after accepting a Torah--a large, parchment scroll bearing the handwritten words of the five books of Moses--from Shomrei Torah Rabbi Elijah Schochet.

Next month, just a few days before Passover, Notowitz will deliver the 70-year-old Torah to a small village in Ukraine that has not had a Torah since World War II, when the Nazis decimated the Jewish community and the Soviets banned religious observances.

The gift of a Torah to the Ukrainian village of Vinogradov, in the Carpathian mountains, also was fitting to Schochet, who last year visited nearby Lithuania to find the village of his father’s birth.

“It was a devastating experience,” said Schochet, reflecting on the western Lithuanian village of Shilel, where nothing remains of the once-thriving Jewish community. The synagogue is now being used as a general store. Even the gravestones in the Jewish cemetery had been destroyed, and Schochet was unable to find any trace of his ancestors.

When he heard about the village of Vinogradov--where the synagogue taken by the government decades ago was returned to the Jews--Schochet said he was encouraged to know that a Jewish community in that area had survived the years of persecution.

Without a Torah, the rabbi said, Jews in Vinogradov cannot fully observe their faith, which requires the reading of the handwritten scrolls every Sabbath.

“For Jews, religion is a very intimate encounter with words,” he said.

Notowitz, a film producer from Santa Monica, visited Vinogradov with director Yale Strom last September, just in time to observe the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Among four villages in the Carpathians that once were home to 250,000 Jews, they found only 2,500.

“They asked us, point-blank, for a Torah,” said Notowitz, who with Strom is working on a film about Vinogradov and the other villages entitled “Ice Cream Man of the Carpathians.” Their film is sponsored by the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity in Los Angeles.

After returning home, Notowitz began a nationwide search, placing requests for a donated Torah in Jewish publications. He knew it would be a difficult task, because a Torah is so rare and expensive.

But the Shomrei Torah Synagogue, founded last year with the merger of two smaller synagogues--Congregation Beth Kodesh and Temple Beth Ami had 16 Torahs.

“Which is a beautiful number to have,” said Schochet, adding that no synagogue would need to use more than three Torahs during a service. He estimated the Torahs’ financial value between $10,000 and $25,000, but said the spiritual value is far greater.

“This is a beautiful one,” Schochet said, giving the Vinogradov-bound Torah to Notowitz. He said he knows little about the history of this particular Torah, except that it may have been written in Eastern Europe, and in that sense it may be returning home.

“I can’t wait to see their eyes when we bring this back,” Notowitz said of the Ukrainians. “To them, it would be a miracle. There will be dancing in the streets.”

Notowitz said he is still looking for a Torah for a nearby village, which has a scroll in such bad condition that it needs to be replaced. Anyone who can help is urged to call him at (310) 453-9065.