Centuries-old Book of Esther scrolls salvaged from Turkey earthquake rubble

When a delegation of ZAKA voluntary emergency response teams scoured the ruins of Antakya, Turkey after the country’s recent catastrophic earthquake, they discovered something they were neither looking for nor expecting to find — centuries-old Book of Esther scrolls.

Tearing up, an older local man approached Major Haim Otmazgin, commander of ZAKA’s search and rescue force, and handed him the scrolls, as per a Ynet report. 

Scroll uncovered from ruins of Turkish Jewish community in Antakya

“The last head of our community has now tragically passed and with our proximity to Syria, I’d hate to see the scrolls fall in the wrong hands,” the man told Major Otmazgin. “Please guard them and make sure our community is remembered.”

A team of ZAKA volunteers, as well as IDF Home Front Command soldiers, located the body of Saul Cenudioglu, the head of Turkey's Antakya Jewish community, last week. Cenudioglu and his wife Fortuna were both found dead in the ruins of their home. Fortuna's body had been rescued and identified the evening before on Thursday night by the same group of volunteers and soldiers.

Major Otmazgin obliged, pledging to keep the scrolls safe and personally oversee their transport. He is consulting with a Chabad emissary in Istanbul with the focus of deciding whom he should entrust with the scrolls.

“In my capacity as a ZAKA volunteer of several decades, this is one of the most moving moments of my life,” said Major Otmazgin. “I’m truly honored to save such a significant historical document and to make sure the heritage of Antakya’s Jewish community remains intact, even after the quake reduced it to nearly nothing.”

As part of a 3-day search and rescue operation, ZAKA successfully retrieved several dozens of survivors from the rubble, despite aftershocks that continued to plague the region. However, not all of the people they found were still alive including the leaders of Antakya’s Jewish community, Saul and Fortuna Cenudioglu. 

The earthquake decimated Antakya’s Jewish community, but its legacy still survives through the scrolls.