Scroll of Esther from the Pressburg Community

Scroll of Esther from the Pressburg Community

Meggilat Esther rescued from the depths of oblivion after the Holocaust. It held an honorable position at the central synagogue in Pressburg, city of the Chata"m Sofer.

Meggilat Esther beautifully written with special tagim on fine parchment.

After the Holocaust, survivors slowly began to return from among the dead to Hungarian cities (to the chagrin of the antisemitic Hungarians). The survivors discovered that the world, as is its way, continued on as if they had just left their homes, as if millions of sacred and pure Hungarian Jews had not just been destroyed with the thrust of a sword. Most of the survivors did not desire to linger in places soaked with the blood of their relatives who were joyously handed over to the Germans by their beloved neighbors - who also tried at that time (and sometimes even succeeded) to harm those who returned.

Rabbi Yom Tov Chaim Friedman was one of the returnees. According to his son's testimony, "He appreciated the value of sefarim, " and went straight to the Great Synagogue in Pressburg. There, almost like in the story in Josephus about the Jew whom the Greeks allowed to enter the Beit HaMikdash, Rabbi Yom Tov Chaim was faced with a difficult dilemma as to what to save from oblivion ... He assumed that after he continued on his way, he would never return to Pressburg. A brave decision led him to save this meggilah from among all the sefarim and ritual items there.

Incidentally, everything that Rabbi Yom Tov left behind at the Pressburg synagogue disappeared over the Communist years, when care was taken to destroy every sign of Judaism.

Specifications: 2 sheets. 9 columns, 35 lines per column. Sheet width - approximately 28 cm. The text is approximately 21 cm in height. The kashrut of the megillah has not been examined.

Fine condition.  Certificate of authenticity included relating the story of the meggilah's rescue after the Holocaust.