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CULTURE As Good as Old When Louisville Rabbi Robert Slosberg repaired an ancient Torah, he healed part of the Jewish community. By David Serchuk Photos by Suki Anderson 24 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 2.13 I t was known throughout the membership of Congregation Adath Jeshurun on Woodbourne Avenue as the Holocaust Torah. Its origins and how it came to AJ, as it's called, mystify. Even AJ's rabbi, Robert Slosberg, is not sure when the synagogue received it, or exactly from where it came. He and the other congregants had long heard that the Torah had been in Europe prior to World War II and survived the Holocaust. Specifcally, Slosberg's predecessor at AJ, Rabbi Simcha Kling, believed the revered scroll had endured the genocide — that is, the Torah was in a synagogue that was torched in Nazi Germany or was used by Jews in the concentration camps. But Kling, a noted author and transla- tor of Hebrew literature, died in 1991, and no one else knows for sure. Over time, the Torah fell into disrepair. Te ink faded and cracked. Te skin tore; the stitching unraveled. Ten years ago a sofer, or Jewish Torah scribe, declared the artifact unkosher, which means it is not ft for use due to its poor condition. A restoration would be difcult and expensive. "We'd had scribes who said the repairs were not worth doing," Slosberg says. In Judaism, the Torah is considered the word of God, so throwing it away was unthinkable. Te only three options, Slosberg says, were to fx it, keep it as a museum piece, or, if it's truly beyond repair, bury it. Slosberg