Saving Lost Scrolls

Rabbi Menachem Youlus is on a mission: to rescue Torahs from a dark past. Youlus, who is a sofer (scribe), estimates that as many as 2,400 Torahs survived the Holocaust, and he is determined to find them all. To accomplish this, he founded Save A Torah Inc., and has spent 17 years scouring Eastern Europe, unearthing and restoring more than 400 Torahs.

All of these Torahs travel to Youlus’ family business, the Jewish Bookstore of Greater Washington in Wheaton, Maryland. There he painstakingly re-inks each letter–a process that takes three to six months–and then finds new homes for the Torahs in synagogues, schools, and Jewish Community Centers. With the help of infrared cameras and optical scanners, he boasts an incredible success rate–about 90 percent of the Torahs he rescues are restored.