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what repair work would need to take place. Bassel's diagnostic revealed that a signifcant portion of the Torah's 308,000 ancient characters had cracked, and in some cases oxidized. (Torah ink is made from crushed gallnuts, copper sulphate and gum arabic — the same ink used in the Dead Sea Scrolls.) Tey would need to be either touched up or rewritten with a quill — a slow, labor-intensive process. Te stitching that holds the parchment sheets together also needed repair. "Along the way people tried to fx the stitching and weren't trained," Bassel says. Tey used regular thread, which is unkosher. "We use thread made of animal sinew, and a roll of it costs $70 for 25 meters." He patched ripped parchment using a glue stick. Troughout his month of meticulous work, Bassel found the Torah itself a bit of a mystery. For one thing, it was written in a German Hebrew script but the materials and stitching were typical of Polish Torahs. Also the parchment was unlike that found in German Torahs, which tended to become frail with age. Tis parchment was more robust — typical, again, of Polish Torahs — and it was stitched in the Polish style. Te Torah's great height is a hallmark of German Torahs. Bassel consulted colleagues in Israel to get their opinion on the origins of this Torah. "Tey agreed that it was probably written in the past 150 years," he says. "Not less than 80 years ago. . . . It was also probably written by a German scribe in Poland." But did it really survive the Holocaust in Europe? Bassel can't say. He contacted a foundation that keeps track of such Torahs, but it wasn't listed among the 1,564 Torah scrolls on fle there. Which doesn't mean it is or isn't — just that there is no record of it. Bassel returned the repaired Holocaust Torah to AJ on Aug. 19. Total repairs: $5,000. Te congregation frst used the newly restored Torah in services this past fall, during the high holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Slosberg says AJ's anonymous donors were there. "Tey were very proud," he says. Today, the restored Holocaust Torah looms over the other Torahs in AJ's ark as an elder statesman of sorts. "Tis is going to live on beyond us," Slosberg says. "Preserving a Torah makes me tingle all over. It's a great accomplishment." Ten he adds, "Tis is one battle the Nazis didn't win." www.NapaRiverGrillLouisville.com eyecareinstitute.com 2.13 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 2 7