As Phoenix’s Temple Chai congregation prepared to vacate its longtime campus for a brand-new building three miles to the northeast this year, temple leadership began considering that it might be time to return two historic pieces of artwork to the community from which they were stolen nearly 100 years ago.

“In our sanctuary, we had no artwork but one thing: a beautiful woven tapestry and a wimpel that were looted by the Nazis on Kristallnacht from a synagogue in Berlin,” said Rabbi Bonnie Koppell. “They’ve been on display in our congregation for decades, and now with this move, we reached out to the Jewish community in Berlin, and they’re ready to receive these things back.”

Koppell connected with Nikolai Todorov, an expert tour guide for the Berlin Guides Association, who confirmed that the long, narrow piece was either a Torah wimpel (mappah) or a Torah binder (gartel). This textile is traditionally used to wrap and secure a closed Torah.

Todorov also considered that the larger tapestry was either a parochet, a curtain used to protect the Torah’s ark, or a Torah mantle, a decorative dress that wraps the scroll.

Both objects appear to reflect individual and communal aspects of Jewish life in Berlin prior to the Holocaust, and they may have been used weekly, or even daily, during prayer services.

The objects originated from the Fasanenstrasse Synagogue in Berlin, one of the most prominent liberal synagogues in the German capital until its forced closure by Nazi authorities.

Fasanenstrasse was inaugurated in 1912 in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district, which served as a central place of worship for Berlin’s western Jewish community until 1936.

Much of its artwork remained in the building until it was looted or severely damaged during Kristallnacht in November 1938. The tapestry and wimpel were thought to have been looted briefly before Nazi sympathizers set fire to the building and many of its remaining religious artifacts, and then the building was further devastated by an Allied air raid in 1943.

According to Koppell, sometime after the war, an American soldier traded some cartons of cigarettes, Crisco oil and other items with a Nazi doctor for the tapestry and wimpel.

That soldier’s son, Robert Saksenhaus, then donated the items to Temple Chai for safekeeping.

After the remaining foundation of the Fasanenstrasse Synagogue was torn down in the 1950s, the Jüdisches Gemeindehaus was built on its exact footprint in 1959 and still serves as the center of Jewish communal life in Berlin.

Koppell is leading Temple Chai congregants and other interested community members on a four-to-five-day trip to Berlin in late October to finally return the items.

Though the original congregation no longer exists, the artifacts are planned to be accepted and stewarded once again by the Berlin Jewish community.

“It’s wildly touching that we’re going to go as a community to bring them back to their home, where they were taken so many years ago,” Koppell said.

Koppell is no stranger to Germany, having spent two summers there during her 38-year career as a United States Army Reserve chaplain. Throughout her career, Koppell earned three Meritorious Service medals, two Army Achievement medals, Army Physical Fitness Excellence awards and an Army Commendation medal, in addition to becoming the first female rabbi to serve in the U.S. military.

“Germany is an interesting place to go as a Jew. It has a bit of a haunted feel to it,” she said. “There’s a lot of Jewish history in Berlin to explore.”

Koppell recalled serving in a U.S. Military base in Heidelberg, Germany, where she had to cross a set of railroad tracks to travel from the base to the nearby city.

“When I crossed the railroad tracks in Germany, it was impossible for me not to picture the trains that ran on those tracks,” she said, referring to the millions of Jewish Europeans transported to concentration camps and death camps by train during the Holocaust.

Those who join Koppell on her trip to Berlin later this year will personally witness the return of the Nazi-looted religious artifacts, in addition to touring and learning about the Jewish communities of Berlin and Prague, capital of the Czech Republic.

More information on the trip will be made available in the coming months.

For now, Temple Chai is focused on celebrating its new home at Bell Road and 60th Street. The congregation came together on the morning of May 28 to walk the Torahs from the established Temple Chai building near Marilyn Road and Tatum Boulevard, and the first Kabbalat Shabbat service in the new building was held on May 29.

“As we move into our new home, we are bringing (the tapestry) back to Berlin, so it can go back to its old home,” said outgoing Board President David Weiner. “It’s really rewarding to know this tapestry’s history and that it can now finally go back.” JN

For more information, visit templechai.com.