The Bayles Torah
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The Bayles Torah (Hebrew: בּיילעס תּוֹרָה) was the first Torah in Alaska. It was given to Sam Bayles by his father, the Rabbi Ephraim Bayles in Lithuania. The Torah arrived in Nome, Alaska in the summer of 1900.
Sam Bayles gave the torah to his brother Isadore "Ike" Bayles when he moved back down to California. Ike Bayless died in 1956 and left the torah "to the Jewish people of Alaska." His executor Robert Atwood gave the torah to the Beth Shalom Synagogue in Anchorage, Alaska where it is on permanent loan.
In the summer of 2000, the Torah was flown to Nome for the 100th anniversary of the Nome Hebrew Congregation, the most northerly & western congregation in the world.
