Many members of Mishkan Torah Synagogue and their neighbors and friends from Greenbelt and elsewhere, congregated at Mishkan Torah on Memorial Day to dedicate the Torah that originated in Vlast, Czechoslovakia about 175 years ago. It survived the Holocaust by having been included in the collection of religious objects designated to be part of the proposed Museum of the History of an Extinct Race, which was being established by the Third Reich of Nazi Germany.
At 3 p.m. on Memorial Day, Greenbelt police came and led a parade of about 50 people plus the Torah, which was held under a wedding canopy (a chuppah) held up by four poles to symbolize the wedding of the Jewish people to the lessons of the Torah. The parade route was from Westway and Ridge to Crescent Road to Southway and Roosevelt Center, then returning to Mishkan Torah.
Read more about the history and rededication of the Vlast Torah in the June 8 News Review
