On the eve of Israel's independence, in the heart of the Hebron Hills, three religious kibbutzim operated in succession – Kfar Etzion, Massuot Yitzhak, and Ein Tzurim. Within temporary wooden structures and complex living circumstances, the settlers safeguarded six Torah scrolls that had reached them through various routes. One was written in Warsaw in honor of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, another was rescued during Kristallnacht in Austria by a woman from the Shmueli family who asked the Nazis to save it from the burning synagogue; and others were donated by Jewish communities in Europe and the United States.
As the battles of the War of Independence intensified and the settlements faced destruction, the Torah scrolls became their most precious spiritual assets. Some were buried in the ground and later taken into captivity. Nachum Levavi and Yehuda Fast from Massuot Yitzhak dug a hole at night, wrapped the scrolls, and recited Kaddish by the light of a small flashlight. "We never imagined we would have to bury Torah scrolls in our own settlement," they testified.
However, ultimately, the people of Massuot Yitzhak changed their minds, and four scrolls – two from Massuot Yitzhak and two from Ein Tzurim – were taken into captivity. In Ein Tzurim, Simcha Cohen and Yosef Schlesinger carried the scrolls – one heavy and ornate, the other borrowed from Kfar Etzion. From Massuot Yitzhak, Rachel Shmueli carried her family's Torah scroll that her mother-in-law had rescued and brought to Israel, while kibbutz member Eliezer Bashan carried "the small scroll from Poland," apparently written by a scribe who perished in the Holocaust.
The captives took the Torah scrolls with them to the Um al-Jimal camp in the Jordanian desert. There, the scrolls became the focus of spiritual life. Shmuel Bezek, among the captives from the Jewish Quarter, described the moment when the Gush captives arrived: "From the side appear the people of Ein Tzurim and Massuot, carrying Torah scrolls in their arms." On Simchat Torah, seventy-seven hakafot (processions) were held. Rabbi Shaar Yashuv Hacohen called the Torah scrolls "the heart of the camp."
On the day the women were released, June 8, 1948, the Shmueli family Torah scroll was carried by Rachel Shmueli in a moving procession to Kfar Yona. The Torah scrolls that were with the men returned months later, in a symbolic ceremony held near the Yeshurun Synagogue in Jerusalem, led by IDF Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, accompanied by a military canopy. "Women showered candies, others burst into cheers," reported the press of that period.
Gush Etzion historian Joseph Spanier began his research following a photo taken by David Rubinger on Israel's first Independence Day – a Torah scroll carried under a military canopy in Jerusalem, identified as a scroll from Kfar Etzion. But how did a Torah scroll from Kfar Etzion return – if all three of its scrolls were considered lost? The research revealed that one of the scrolls had been loaned to Ein Tzurim, and it's possible that this was the one that survived and returned. Its current whereabouts are unknown, and its story is still being researched.
Of the original six scrolls: Two from Kfar Etzion – lost, desecrated, or burned. Four survived the battles – two from Massuot Yitzhak, two from Ein Tzurim.
Three exist today – the Shmueli scroll resides in a yeshiva in Susya, the small scroll from Poland returned to Massuot Yitzhak, and the heavy scroll from Ein Tzurim was repaired after 45 years and returned to use in a ceremony on Jerusalem Day. The fourth scroll – the one borrowed from Kfar Etzion to Ein Tzurim and photographed in the procession on the first Independence Day – has vanished without a trace.
The complete story of the Torah scrolls – "Saved from the Fire of Etzion" – will be revealed and presented at the 9th "Judean Land Research" conference, to be held on Thursday, 17th of Iyar (May 15), at the Kfar Etzion Field School. The conference is held in partnership with the Kfar Etzion Field School, the Antiquities Authority, the Jewish National Fund, East R&D, the Nature and Parks Authority, Bar-Ilan University, and the Jeselsohn Center for the Study of Israel's History through Epigraphy.
