Berlin: Two century-old Torah textiles returned after 88 years

Two Jewish ritual textiles, stolen from a Berlin synagogue during Kristallnacht in 1938, returned to Germany on Oct. 22 after nearly nine decades in American custody. The items, a Torah wimple and a parochet curtain, were handed over at the New Synagogue Berlin Foundation-Centrum Judaicum museum on Oranienburger Strasse. The transfer concludes a long journey that began in postwar Germany and continued through a Phoenix, Arizona, synagogue.

The textiles were acquired by Moishe Saksenhaus, a Holocaust survivor from Belarus, shortly after the war. He purchased them from a German man who claimed to have stolen them from a burning synagogue on Nov. 9, 1938. The seller demanded Crisco, coffee, flour, cigarettes, and cigars in exchange. Saksenhaus brought the items to the United States and kept them in a suitcase, displaying them only on special occasions. After his death in 1993, his family donated them to Temple Chai in Phoenix.

Temple Chai deconsecrated its original building in 2026 and moved to a new location in Scottsdale, Arizona, earlier this year. Associate Rabbi Bonnie Koppell initiated the return process after learning the full history of the objects from congregants. She stated that the community realized the items belonged in Berlin if the original owners or their descendants wanted them back.

The handover ceremony included Gideon Joffe, president of the Berlin Jewish Community, Rabbi Gesa Ederberg, historian Rabbi Andreas Nachama, and 29 visitors from Arizona. The large parochet features embroidered Kiddush blessings and a signature from an artist named Yitzchak Itzik ben C’harad Yehuda Leib from Rivnitz, Moldova. The wimple bears a blessing for a child named Yitzchak Itzik ben Kavod Ha-rav Gistori, likely created for his brit milah.

Sol Saksenhaus, 72, a retired special-education teacher and son of the original owner, described the donation as a sign of love. He recalled his father’s refusal to trade the items until the persistent seller threatened them. Saksenhaus said his parents escaped the Warsaw Ghetto through sewers and later lived in a Displaced Persons camp in Feldafing, Germany, before emigrating to the U.S.

Experts for the Berlin Jewish community could not confirm the specific pre-war synagogue of origin but added the items to the Centrum Judaicum collection. The parochet will join the permanent collection, while the wimple is planned for display at the community center on the site of the former Fasanenstrasse synagogue.

The transportation of the textiles faced a logistical hurdle at Cologne airport, where customs officials requested a 5,000 euro tax. The Berlin Jewish community used its tax-exempt status to release the package. Koppell carried the wimple in her hand luggage to avoid similar fees. The items traveled from Phoenix to Berlin to complete their return to the community that lost them nearly 88 years ago.