A new year has brought a new mantle for the Czech Torah scroll at East London & Essex Liberal Synagogue.
The mantle — used for the first time at Rosh Hashanah — is in memory of Jenny Sclaire, a prominent member of the congregation who died just over a year ago.
It was donated by her cousins Jacqueline and Gilbert Herzog and designed and embroidered by Kathy Sylvester of Nottingham Liberal Synagogue.
The scroll’s origins were in the tiny community of Blatne, a Moravian village 50 miles south of Prague.
Twenty-eight gold and silver stars on the new mantle represent the Jews from Blatne who were deported to Theresienstadt in 1942. Three of them died there; the other 25 died in Auschwitz.
