A family from Israel went to Poland 3 years ago on a "roots" trip - looking for family history, visiting the Jewish cemetery and looking for records, information, and items in the town they descended from.
They met up with a local Polish fellow named Martin who had taken it upon himself to clean up and refurbish the old Jewish cemetery in the town.
They made a good connection and Martin became their tour guide, helping them plan where to go, tips where to find family history, etc.
The family finished the trip and stayed in touch with Martin who would occasionally let them know about new things he discovered..
Martin eventually made a trip to Israel. He met with the family and gave them an unusual artifact.
Martin had been interviewed on Polish television about his work with the Jewish cemetery. Someone else, Arthur, from a different town had seen the interview and arranged a meeting with Martin.
When they met, Arthur told Martin that his grandfather had worked with leather and used to sew and sell leather wallets and satchels. A fire had broken out in his grandfathers home and when they went through the remains they discovered a wallet that had survived undamaged. Opening it up they had seen that the leather had Hebrew letters on it. After doing some research they discovered the wallet was decades old and was made from the parchment of a Torah scroll. Arthur also told Martin that there were other scraps of similar material from a Torah in his grandfathers shop that he would use for repairs and patches.
Arthur had decided that he needed to return the wallet to the Jewish people but did not know how to do that. After seeing Martin's interview, he figured he would contact Martin to discuss it with him. Martin eventually convinced Arthur that the right thing to do would be to give the wallet to Martin who could get it transferred to Israel.
Martin brought it to Israel and gave it to his friends. Open receiving it they saw that the portion of the Torah sued for this wallet was from the portion of akeidat yitzchak. She gave the artifact to an institution that works on commemorating the Holocaust named the Shem Olam Institute.
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