Jerusalem police have recovered an antique Torah case that was stolen from a synagogue in the city more than 20 years ago. Detectives found it during a raid on suspected weapons dealers and returned it on Thursday to the son of the man who originally donated it.
Stolen Heirloom Returns Home
Police Recover Torah Case Stolen in 2005
Detectives found the ornate case, once brought from Iran, while searching the homes of suspected arms dealers, and police say the raid fell on the yahrzeit of the man it was dedicated to.
The ornate case, which was once brought to Israel from Iran, turned up during a wide-ranging series of arrests carried out by the special operations division of the Jerusalem District's central investigative unit. The operation was part of a long-running effort against criminals dealing in weapons. Police said the arrests followed an undercover operation in which a police agent was planted among the suspects. While searching the suspects' homes, officers noticed an item rarely found at a crime scene: an old, decorated case for a Torah scroll.
A close examination showed that the case bore a detailed engraved dedication that included the names of the original donors. Given the item's uniqueness, its historical value and its deep religious and emotional significance, detectives decided not to simply log it as evidence. Instead they opened an investigation to trace its history and return it to its rightful owners.
The investigation found that the Torah scroll and its case had been stolen from a Jerusalem synagogue in 2005 and had not been seen in the 21 years since. Detectives then traced the donor named in the dedication. According to police, he was a former Israeli ambassador in Tehran who had given the Torah scroll to the synagogue in memory of his late father. The former ambassador himself died in the years after the theft.
Police eventually reached his son, who was invited to the central unit's offices in Jerusalem. The case was handed back to him there. During checks ahead of the handover, police said, they discovered that the raid in which the case was seized fell on the Hebrew anniversary, or yahrzeit, of the death of the grandfather in whose memory the Torah had originally been dedicated.
Jerusalem District Police said the case went beyond a routine weapons investigation and touched on the preservation of Jewish and family heritage. Chief Superintendent Eran Asraf, head of the special operations division, said that "during a covert, creative and complex operation involving a police agent, the detectives located a unique historical item of priceless emotional and traditional value."
"From the moment we understood that this was an item stolen from a synagogue more than two decades ago, it was clear to us that the mission would not be complete with the arrest of the suspect alone, but only with the return of the case to the family," Asraf added. "The fact that the seizure took place exactly on the Hebrew anniversary of the death of the grandfather in whose memory the Torah was donated gives this investigation a particularly symbolic and moving meaning for the officers and for the family."
The recovery is one of several recent raids in which Jerusalem District officers have targeted criminal activity. Last week, officers from the Jordan Valley station and Border Police raided an illegal gambling site near the Almog Junction, arresting 12 suspects and seizing tens of thousands of shekels in cash.
