Rare 16th-Century Jewish Bible, Looted by Nazis, to Return to Budapest Seminary After Deal with U.S. Seller

Rare 16th-Century Jewish Bible, Looted by Nazis, to Return to Budapest Seminary After Deal with U.S. Seller

Edited by: Fern Sidman

In a case that has garnered attention for its unusual defendant, the U.S. government has taken legal action to reclaim a rare and historically significant Jewish book that was looted during World War II. Though the case is technically titled United States of America v. In Re The Chamisa Humshe Torrah (Five Books of Moses) Venice…, the defendant is not a person, but rather a valuable Jewish text from the 16th century. According to the information provided in a recently published report on the Jewish Telegraphic Agency web site, this legal designation, known as “defendant-in-rem,” refers to the government’s attempt to seize the book, which is now being treated as an important cultural artifact.

The rare text in question consists of two separate Jewish works printed in Venice, Italy, by Giovanni di Gara in 1589 and 1599. The first is a Hebrew Torah, or the Five Books of Moses, and the second is a collection of Haftarot—biblical passages that are recited on Shabbat and Jewish holidays as part of traditional Jewish liturgy. As The JTA report explained, the book’s journey from a Jewish library in Budapest to a sale listing on an online marketplace is a tragic yet familiar story for Jewish artifacts that were looted during the Nazi occupation of Hungary.

Before the book was looted, it had been part of the extensive library at the Budapest University of Jewish Studies, Hungary’s premier Jewish institution. However, in March 1944, during the Nazi invasion of Hungary, the university was seized, and the library’s collection, which included many rare and valuable texts, was looted, as per the information contained in The JTA report. The university itself was transformed into a prison and way station for Jews being deported to concentration camps. The report also indicated that the theft of Jewish books and cultural items was part of a larger effort to rob the Jewish community of its intellectual heritage, in addition to the widespread looting of personal and communal property.

After the war, the seminary managed to reopen and has been continuously operational, even during the communist era when it was the only rabbinical school in Eastern Europe. Over the decades, pieces of the looted collection have occasionally resurfaced, prompting the seminary and the Hungarian government to initiate recovery efforts, as noted in The JTA report. This particular text was discovered in a listing on AbeBooks.com with an asking price of approximately $19,000. Hungarian officials quickly moved to involve the U.S. government, requesting intervention to recover the stolen book.

The most compelling evidence of the book’s provenance was found in a stamp on one of its pages. The stamp indicated that the book had once belonged to Lelio Della Torre, a prominent 19th-century Italian Jewish scholar and rabbi. As was reported by The JTA, historical records show that Della Torre’s collection was acquired by the Budapest seminary after his death in 1877, making the stamp a clear indication that the text had been part of the library before the Nazi looting. This critical detail allowed Hungarian authorities to authenticate the book and launch the repatriation effort.

 This legal case, while unusual, is part of a broader, ongoing effort to reclaim Jewish cultural and religious artifacts that were stolen during the Holocaust. These efforts, coordinated by governments, museums, and Jewish organizations around the world, have become a vital part of Holocaust restitution. The return of such items not only restores stolen cultural heritage to its rightful owners but also serves as a reminder of the devastating impact of the Nazi regime on Jewish history.

According to The JTA report, the case came to light when Meir Turner, a New York rare book dealer specializing in Judaica listed the book for sale on AbeBooks.com. Turner, who bought the book in the 1980s, claimed he was unaware that it had been looted during the war. The report added that when contacted by agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s law enforcement division, Turner expressed his willingness to forfeit the book once presented with a legal order.

Turner’s cooperation was critical in the recovery process. Indicated in The JTA report was that a few weeks later, agents returned with a warrant from a federal judge, allowing the government to seize the book. The matter became public when a federal judge approved an agreement between Turner and federal prosecutors, allowing for the book’s return to the seminary in Budapest. Turner has not been accused of any wrongdoing in this case, and as of the time of reporting, he had not responded to inquiries from The JTA.

The book, a combination of two rare Jewish texts printed in Venice in the late 16th century by Giovanni di Gara, has significant cultural and historical importance. Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, emphasized the significance of this case, stating, “With this forfeiture, a small but meaningful piece of the history of the Jewish faith will be returned to its rightful owner, the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary.” The JTA also reported that Williams further explained that the text disappeared during the Nazi occupation of Budapest in 1944 when the city’s rabbinical seminary was looted.

The return of looted Jewish artifacts and books has become a growing area of focus in recent years, particularly as digitization and online records have made it easier for researchers and governments to identify and track down stolen volumes. The case of the Di Gara text is part of a larger trend in the global recovery of books looted by the Nazis, as pointed out in The JTA report.  Institutions in various countries have been working to recover stolen texts, using newly accessible information from digital archives and records to trace the provenance of these lost treasures.

For instance, researchers in Poland have been recovering books from the Lublin Yeshiva, a once-renowned Jewish institution whose library was believed to have been burned by the Nazis. In another notable effort, a London-based Holocaust research center has launched an initiative to enlist amateur sleuths to help locate books once housed at the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies in Berlin, according to The JTA report. This project has already located 5,000 of the institute’s estimated 60,000 volumes across seven countries on four continents.

As the recovery of stolen Jewish books accelerates, the efforts by governments, libraries, and research centers to locate and return these volumes offer some measure of justice. The Di Gara text’s repatriation to Budapest represents not only the return of a physical object but also a moment of historical reckoning and a triumph of Jewish resilience. As The JTA report has documented, these ongoing efforts to restore lost Jewish texts serve as a reminder of the cultural devastation wrought by the Holocaust, and of the importance of preserving and recovering Jewish heritage in the modern era.