Religion

ST. LOUIS — A Torah scroll valued at about $30,000 that was reported stolen from a St. Louis-area synagogue is one of a handful of Torah scrolls stolen in the past year in the United States, mystifying police and the Jewish community.

The scroll taken in May from a synagogue in suburban University City had last been seen a week before. Police Capt. Mike Ransom said police had no leads and found no sign of forced entry into the building, which was locked.

In April, two Torah scrolls and a laptop computer were stolen from a synagogue in Kenosha, Wis. Another Torah and an overheard projector were taken from a high school in a St. Paul, Minn., suburb in September.

In Miami Beach, Fla., a Chabad house burned down in April. Police suspect that a Torah was taken before the fire started because investigators found no remnants of the scroll inside the ark and a rabbi found a piece of the Torah's wooden post outside the next day.

Torah scrolls, entirely handwritten in Hebrew by a scribe, contain the five books of Moses. New scrolls cost between $30,000 and $50,000 to produce.