Pivotal People

1881-1944

A high school teacher of classical languages, he was very interested in the history of Jews in Moravia. During WWI, he took care of Jewish emigrants from Galicia and even became a special envoy of the Ministry of the Interior in this area. When the Central Jewish Museum for Moravia and Silesia in Mikulov (Nikolsburg) was established in 1936, he became its curator and actively searched for objects that would enrich its collection, thus creating a representative picture of Moravian Jewry. After the Mikulov Museum’s holdings were moved to Brno in May 1938, Engel, who had no family, left for Prague. In the spring of 1942, the Mikulov museum collection was transferred to the capital, which was an important step on the way to founding the Central Jewish Museum in Prague a couple of months later. Engel then joined the team of the Central Jewish Museum where he worked till his deportation in July 1943. He did not survive the war.

1881-1942

A high school teacher by profession, he was the founder and spiritus agens of the Jewish Museum in Prague in 1906. He was very active socially, a member of numerous societies, some of them very prestigious: e. g., he was the Head of the Prague Chevra Kadisha, the Burial Society and a long-time Board member of the Prague Jewish community. He was also the author of several important historical essays on Bohemian Jewry based often on historiographical material [chronicles etc.]. During WWII, he worked for the Prague Jewish Community and also became involved with the Central Jewish Museum where he was a co-curator of the first installation focused on Hebrew manuscripts, prints and books. He died of a stroke in Prague in the autumn 1942.

1906-1961

Stein studied law but in the first months after the Munich Agreement in September 1938 and after the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia by the Nazis in March 1939 he was – like so many others – forbidden to follow his profession as a lawyer. He then started to work for the Prague Jewish Community becoming the Chairman of the Department of Provincial Affairs.

Aware of the situation of the Jewish communities in the so-called Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia, it was his idea to gather all liturgical objects, books and archive records from Bohemian and Moravian synagogues in Prague to keep them safe for after the war.
He was one of the few to survive and in 1945, he became the Head of the Prague Jewish Community. Following the Communist Putsch in 1948, he left the country for Israel in 1949. He died before being able to testify at the Eichmann trial.

1904-1985

Being an art historian and librarian, she joined the museum’s team in the spring 1943 to assist Josef Polák. Together with him, she worked on an exhibition on the history of the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia and another on the Jews of Prague. After Polák was arrested and most of the staff were deported in the autumn 1944, she took over the coordination of the museum’s work. Being temporarily “protected” by her mixed marriage, she was deported to Terezín in February 1945. The only specialist at the Central Jewish Museum to survive the war, she saved the Museum in the post-war chaos, becoming its Director under the Communist regime in 1950. Feeling responsible for remembering the fate of Bohemian and Moravian Jews, her own family members and her colleagues from the war-time museum, she fought to keep the collections intact after the war.

1913-1993

Eric Estorick born in the USA and moved to England after marrying Salome Dessau. He was the owner of the Grosvenor Gallery in London and frequently visited eastern Europe in search of works of art from Russia and the communist countries. He was approached in Prague by Artia, the Czech government company which managed the sale of cultural items, to ask if he was interested in the purchase of a large quantity of Jewish artefacts. He contacted Ralph Yablon, who was a customer of the Grosvenor Gallery and subsequently, acting on the latter’s behalf, was able to negotiate the sale of the scrolls by Artia to Ralph Yablon.

1910 -2006

Ruth Shaffer was born in Warsaw, the daughter of the Yiddish writer, Sholem Asch. She lived in Europe and America, before settling in London, where she and her husband joined Westminster Synagogue. Her friendship with Rabbi Reinhart led him to invite her to help with the increasing workload of the Scrolls organisation, a task which she fulfilled faithfully for nearly forty years, working almost single handedly for much of the time. She set up the scrolls database, first on index cards and later on computer, which she learned to use in her eighties. Her system was the basis for all the subsequent work connected with the scrolls. She was the driving force behind the project and she and the Trust became synonymous. Her ability to speak Yiddish was crucial in her close working relationship with David Brand, the Sofer.

1906-1984

Ralph Yablon, after many years as a practising solicitor, developed a wide range of commercial and academic interests, and was also a prominent philanthropist. He was a founder member of Westminster Synagogue, and he and his wife Phyllis were close personal friends of Flora and Rabbi Harold Reinhart. He had been instrumental in finding a permanent home for the congregation at Kent House, and with others helped to finance its purchase. His first reaction to the information he received about the scrolls was to seek guidance from Rabbi Reinhart, and together they determined to pursue the matter and to take on the awesome responsibility for the scrolls. Ralph Yablon duly purchased the scrolls and donated them to Westminster Synagogue. In due course the Czech Memorial Scrolls Trust was created to take over the formal responsibility for the scrolls. Ralph Yablon was a Trustee and provided further financial support for rent and materials, until his death in 1984.