A Torah scroll-that had seen the days of the Spanish Inquisition has just ben discovered on an estate near Barcelona, whose owners claim that their Jewish ancestors had resided on the same estate since the fifteenth century.
The Barcelona correspondent of the Judische Presszentrale, of Zurich, who recently visited the old Spanish-Jewish estate, reported that he was shown into a secret room in a sub-cellar in which the ancient Torah had been kept for centuries. The room, which is windowless and located about twenty feet underground, had served as the meeting place for the Marranos of the district, who had secretly practiced Judaism for hundreds of years.
Although it is over six hundred years old, the scroll is well-preserved. It is kept in a special case built into the stone wall of the room behind a disappearing door, camouflaged with all the traditional mystery-story atmosphere.
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