The Jan Karski Society received an unusual gift from Alicja Tarka from Kielce. This is a unique Torah fragment with the words from the Book of Numbers. Mrs. Tarka found this parchment in the attic of the sukkah – a built-up balcony in the tenement house where she lives, in Okrzei Street. The house in Okrzei Street belonged to Josek and David Urbach and Etla Jankielewska. The Urbach family dealt with the purchase and processing of feathers. The products were exported to Western Europe. Josek and David Urbach died in Treblinka in 1942. Dr. Marek Maciągowski found in the State Archives of Kielce the plans of the tenement house in which Mrs. Alicja Tarka lives. The house plans include a balcony, on which the owner built a wooden porch with a movable roof, which could be pulled apart during the “sukkah” festival. Okrzei Street is one of the few preserved traces of the former Jewish community in Kielce.
A fragment of the Torah from Kielce
