Stolen Torah Scrolls Found Intact Outside Manchester Church After Three Months

Two Torah scrolls stolen from a synagogue in Salford, Greater Manchester, were found intact outside a Methodist church and returned to the local Jewish community Friday, community reports said.

The recovery brought relief after nearly three months of concern over the whereabouts and condition of the scrolls, which had been taken during an early-morning break-in at Beis HaMedrash Torah Etz Chaim on Bury New Road.

According to local Jewish reports, a person in the area recognized the scrolls and contacted a figure in the Jewish community. Photographs of the scrolls were then circulated, leading community members to identify them as the ones stolen from the shul in March.

Images from the scene showed the scrolls inside the church while they were waiting to be collected. They were later returned to the community in good condition.

The discovery led to celebration on Friday outside the synagogue, where members of the community gathered with music and dancing to mark the return of the scrolls.

The theft took place around 5:30 a.m. on Friday, March 20. CCTV footage from the time showed three men wearing high-visibility clothing entering the building with a trolley before removing a heavy safe and loading it into a van.

The safe contained the two scrolls. At the time, members of the synagogue said the thieves appeared to know where they were going.

“It looks like they knew where they were going,” a synagogue committee member told local media after the theft.

The committee member said the men were inside for just over half an hour before leaving with the safe.

“In 33 minutes they were out of there with the two scrolls that are very sentimental,” the member said.

The synagogue launched an appeal after the theft and offered a £2,000 reward for the safe return of the scrolls. Community members said the scrolls, believed to be decades old, had no resale value but were deeply important to the congregation.

“There’s no value for the public, but for us it’s very sentimental,” one member said at the time.

Greater Manchester Police said after the theft that officers were investigating and that no arrests had been made at that stage. A fresh police statement on the recovery was not immediately reported.

The circumstances of how the scrolls reached the church remain unclear. Manchester Shomrim assisted after the discovery, and community reports said security camera footage in the area was being reviewed as part of the effort to identify those involved.

For the congregation, the return ended weeks of uncertainty that began when the safe was dragged out of the synagogue and disappeared from the Salford Jewish community. The scrolls were brought back intact, turning the case from a theft that shocked the community into a public celebration of relief.