Temple holds historic beauty
Luminous art depicts cosmos and brief yet brilliant human life
Congregation Beth Emeth’s biggest sanctuary has seven floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows, cascades of hundreds of hues of blue dramatically symbolizing the cosmos, skies and oceans during Creation. Floating in the abstract colors are realistic and detailed stained glass scenes of men, women and children celebrating holy days and worshiping. Those scenes were rescued from Temple Beth Emeth’s 19th century building on Swan and Lancaster Streets.
International authority on stained glass art, Robert Sowers, worked to incorporate those highly detailed human stained glass scenes into the towering blue, green, purple and white abstract designs. The building was dedicated in 1957 and has optimistic, mid-century modern elements like swooping, curved roofs, lots of light and glass.
Even on a gray snowy afternoon, the stained glass shimmers with light.
The realistic scenes are vibrant against the blue background. A beautiful woman gleaning golden sheaves from a field of grain smiles down at visitors.
“Yes, that’s Ruth from the Bible, an old window from the previous building ” explains synagogue maintenance director Steve Squires.
He explains that when the old windows included the names of the people depicted, those names were removed before the smaller windows were incorporated into the abstract cosmic windows.
“Now, without names, we can see them just humans, just people who are part of all Creation,” he adds.
Squires has worked for the synagogue for 30 years and knows all about the treasures it holds.
One of the most fascinating is the Torah scroll displayed in the lobby’s glass case. It belonged to a Czechoslovakian synagogue but was stolen by the Nazis for Hitler’s museum curators. Squires explains that Hitler dreamed of building a Jewish Museum that would showcase the art, religion and culture of an entire population he was determined to murder.
“He had curators who kept meticulous records of each object that would go into the museum,” said Squires, who remembered that when the Torah scroll was rescued and given to Beth Emeth “the tag written by the Nazi curator was inside the box with the scroll.”
He leads visitors into a nearby Wolk Hall (named after Rabbi Samuel Wolk, who died right before the 100 Academy Road building ’s dedication) where three Tiffany windows sparkle in the darkness. Three wooden doors leading outside were removed and replaced by the Tiffany windows that fill the door frames. One window depicts a life-sized Moses. Visitors have the odd sensation of standing a couple of feet from and eye-toeye with Moses. His red and burgundy robe and the greenish blue gems surrounding him have the rich pigments that helped make Tiffany famous.
Squires says a Metropolitan Museum of Art researcher came to Beth Emeth to examine the three windows. But she was more astonished by a sample of Tiffany’s fabric art owned by Beth Emeth. It’s also displayed in a glass case: a silky Torah cover in a shade deep rose with Hebrew words embroidered on it. The researcher said examples of Tiffany ’s fabric art were rare.
“A lot of people don’t know that Tiffany made robes, prayer shawls and Torah covers for synagogues,” Squires says.
A hall table is loaded with Hanukkah gift bags and little sacks packed with gelt (chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil). Most of the celebrations will be via Zoom but at 4 p.m. Sunday there will be a drive-up Menorah lighting worshipers can enjoy safe and warm in their cars.
Just down the hall, a group portrait of the greatest Jewish baseball heroes crowded in front of one dugout—and most of them autographed their portraits. Sandy Koufax and his signature are front and center. Even better, the artist painted the portrait of every person who bought the work of art into the stands. Movie director Rob Reiner and talk show legend Larry King are among the famous buyers painted into the stands. They autographed the painting hanging in Beth Emeth.
The synagogue also has striking sculptures outside the building. But Beth Emeth education director Shara Siegfeld, who looks forward to giving tours of the synagogue when the pandemic ends, says the stained glass windows seem to have an especially powerful impact on visitors.
“When all the sunlight is streaming through, the sensory experience is amazing,” she says.
In this pandemic year, when so many have lost loved ones, the Creation windows stir deep emotions. Those small windows showing nameless humans set against the vast, blue cascade of Creation remind visitors of how brief one individual life is in the thousands of years before and after one person’s birth and death. Yet, as Siegfeld points out, the feeling inspired is somehow reassuring because the small, human scenes are so brightly luminous.
In one, two children and a rabbi gaze at candles burning with orange flames surrounded by gold halos. In another, a stained glass portrait of three men in prayer shawls, their expressions are so vivid. It’s the same expression the children have.
“It’s awe,” says Siegfeld — awe at how valuable an individual life can be, even if it’s just one fragment in the vastness of creation.