For 90-year-old Susan Avidan, laying hands on a long-lost Torah, which had belonged to her father, is bittersweet.
She was a teenager when the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, and receiving the treasured family Torah brings back memories of one of Europe's darkest eras.
"We can remember all those things that happen that time, it's very emotional," she said.
Rabbi Levi Wolff from the Sydney's Central Synagogue says the Torah was often a target for the Nazis during the Holocaust.
"While the Nazis were hunting down every Jew, they were hunting down what made the Jew - and that's the Torah," he said.
A Torah belonging to Mrs Avidan's father, was hidden in a Jewish cemetery in the hope it would survive.
As the war was ending, the Torah was recovered and it was taken to Israel.
Mr Avidan's grandson, Danny Avidan travelled to Israel to retrieve and restore his grandfather's treasure, before presenting it to his mother at a special ceremony on her 90th birthday.
"In a way, as an immigrant family who came here with nothing, here was an opportunity for us to replant the family tree," he said,
Rabbi Wolff says it is a significant moment, not just for the Avidan family, but for the broader Jewish community.
"The Torah is coming back to its original owner and family, but we view that as coming back to all of us. To the entire global Jewish family," he said.
Share
