Rahamim Shamash, right, and his wife with two Torah scrolls that he and his brother David brought from Jerusalem to Afghanistan in 1914.
An Heirloom Torah’s Journey From Jerusalem to Afghanistan to Hong Kong
In 1914, Jewish Afghani brothers Rahamim and David Shamash returned from Jerusalem to Afghanistan along the well-trodden routes of the Silk Road with two new Torah scrolls, written for the Jewish communities of Afghanistan. A century later, after falling into disuse and disrepair, one of the Torah scrolls has found a new home, when two scions of the Shamash family—Hannah Zion and her brother, Ronald Abram—refurbished and rededicated it last month at Chabad-Lubavitch of Hong Kong.
