Yale Will Return Old Manuscript

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--Yale University will return to the heirs of Baron Edmond de Rothschild a rare 15th century Passover prayer book that apparently was stolen from the Rothschild family by the Nazis during World War II and eventually was donated to Yale.

Named the Murphy Haggadah after its alumnus donor, the book--which is worth about $150,000--was identified as the Rothschilds' through the tiny number "92" penciled on the inside back cover. That number corresponded to an inventory number in a catalog of the baron's possessions.

Fred Towlsey Murphy, a former member of the Yale Corporation, donated the 47-page manuscript to Yale in 1948. Officials said they do not know how Murphy obtained the manuscript, for he was not a collector of Hebraica and no member of his immediate family was in Europe during the war.

The manuscript probably was made in the workshop of Jothel Ben Simeon, a prolific scribe of the late 1400s working in Northern Italy, Walter Cahn, chairman of the Yale history of art department, and his wife, Annabelle, wrote in an article for the Yale Library Gazzette.

The Rothschild family told Yale officials they will give the manuscript to Hebrew University in Jerusalem, recipient of many donations from the Rothschilds.