Long-lost Jewish text stolen by Nazis to be returned after mysteriously appearing on rare book website

A centuries-old Jewish text that mysteriously ended up on an online marketplace is now returning home.

In a press release last week, the Southern District of New York (SDNY) announced that a district judge confirmed a private owner's forfeiture of the Di Gara text, which dates back to the 16th century.

The book will be given to the Jewish Theological Seminary of the University of Jewish Studies in Budapest, the SDNY press release said. It was originally published in Venice by Giovanni di Gara, a printer who specialized in Hebrew books, in the late 1500s.

"The Di Gara text is comprised of two works from the Jewish faith: (1) the Chamisa Humshe Torrah (Five Books of Moses), or the Jewish Torrah in book form, and (2) the Haftarot, a series of selections from the Hebrew Bible," the release explained.

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The book changed hands over the years, and was owned by a 19th-century rabbi named Lelio Della Torre until his death. 

Della Torre's collection was then donated to the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary, where the Di Gara text was stolen by Nazi soldiers in 1944.

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"In 1944, in the midst of World War II and the Jewish Holocaust, Nazi forces invaded Budapest and seized and occupied the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary, looting its holdings," the SDNY statement read. "The Di Gara Text is believed to have disappeared during this period."

The book mysteriously ended up in the United States in the 80 years it was missing. In March 2023, Hungarian officials noticed the book up for sale on AbeBooks.com, an online marketplace for rare and collectible books.

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The book was listed by a New York seller who specialized in Judaica and acquired the book in the 1980s. Homeland Security agents met with the vendor, who eventually handed the book over after being served a warrant. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres confirmed the voluntary forfeiture on Oct. 4.

"With this forfeiture, a small, but meaningful, piece of the history of the Jewish faith will be returned to its rightful owner, the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary," SDNY U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a press statement. "We may never know how it ended up in the Southern District of New York, but it is now returning home."

"My Office retains its firm commitment to protecting priceless cultural property and, where it has been illegally taken, returning it to its rightful peoples," the official added.

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