Berlin Jewish Community Receives 16th Century Textiles From Phoenix Synagogue

Two Jewish ritual textiles stolen from a Berlin synagogue during Kristallnacht in 1938 have returned to Germany after nearly 88 years. The items, a Torah wimple and a parochet curtain, were handed over at the Centrum Judaicum museum on Oranienburger Strasse on October 22. Associate Rabbi Bonnie Koppell of Temple Chai in Phoenix, Arizona, presented the artifacts to Gideon Joffe, president of the Berlin Jewish Community.

The objects originated in a Berlin synagogue that burned on November 9, 1938. A German man named Ahgar, who identified himself as a medical doctor, claimed he stole them during the raid. He approached Moishe Saksenhaus, a Holocaust survivor living in a displaced persons camp in Feldafing, Germany. Ahgar threatened to destroy the items unless Saksenhaus paid him in goods. The trade included boxes of Crisco, bags of coffee, cartons of cigarettes, flour, and cigars.

Saksenhaus brought the items to the United States after the war. He kept them in a suitcase and removed them only for special occasions. After Saksenhaus died in 1993, his family donated the textiles to Temple Chai. They hung in the sanctuary for decades until the congregation moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, in the spring of 2026. The original building was deconsecrated later that year.

Joan Neer, an assistant to Koppell, learned the full history of the items in 2024. She had known the objects were rescued from Kristallnacht for 30 years but did not realize they were taken through a forced trade. Neer advocated for their return to Berlin. She told Koppell and synagogue president Debbie Berkowitz that the items belonged in their home community.

The Berlin community accepted the offer. Packing the large parochet required wrapping it in artisanal paper. Koppell carried the wimple in her hand luggage. The shipment faced a delay at Cologne airport. German customs officials demanded a tax of 5,000 euros, roughly 5,567 dollars, and threatened to return the package in five days if the fee was not paid. The Berlin Jewish Community used its tax-exempt status to release the package.

Experts from the Berlin community could not confirm which specific pre-World War II synagogue the curtain came from. However, they identified the wimple as likely originating from the Fasanenstrasse synagogue. The curtain features embroidered text for the Kiddush blessing. It bears a signature in Hebrew from Yitzchak Itzik ben C’harad Yehuda Leib, a resident of Rivnitz, Moldova. The wimple includes a blessing for a child named Yitzchak Itzik ben Kavod Ha-rav Gistori.

Sol Saksenhaus, 72, is the son of Moishe Saksenhaus. He grew up seeing the objects in his family home. He described them as sacred. Sol said the family is giving the items back as a sign of love. He noted that his parents, Moishe and Rosa Saksenhaus, had escaped the Warsaw Ghetto through sewers and joined partisans. They were later deported to Siberia by the Soviets. Moishe worked as a translator for the U.S. military in Traunstein and engaged in black market activities.

Rosa Saksenhaus removed a swastika from an old tag on the tapestry before donating it to Temple Chai in 1993. She told her son the tag was not suitable for a temple. The items were previously examined by an expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, who dated them to the 16th century.

The handover ceremony included Rabbi Gesa Ederberg and historian Rabbi Andreas Nachama. Twenty-nine visitors from Arizona attended. Nickolai Todorov, a Berlin Jew who guided the U.S. visitors, called the event moving for both groups. Koppell told the assembled crowd that the items had traveled a long road. She stated that this time, they are going home.

The Berlin Jewish Community plans to add the parochet to the Centrum Judaicum collection. The wimple will be displayed at the community center on the site of the former Fasanenstrasse synagogue. The community serves as an umbrella for several congregations of various denominations in Berlin.