Sign In Forgot Password

Our Sacred Spaces

Our Sanctuary



Our Windows

Our Sanctuary is graced with eight original plastic-glass mosaic windows representing Creation, Revelations, Worship, Redemption, Sukkot/Simchat Torah, Shabbat, High Holy Days, and Passover/Shavuot. The last four can be seen on our history page.

                         

These windows were commissioned by artist Charles Van Atten in 1962. Mr. Van Atten consulted on the design by Rabbi Michael Szenes regarding the Biblical symbolism. The mosaic plastic-glass windows represented a new art form that allowed the observer to enjoy the effects from both sides, this method also made for a very strong and well-insulated window.

 

Harry and Henry Schaffer (pictured at left) donated these windows in memory of their parents Abraham and Annie Schaffer. The windows were dedicated during an open house on Sunday, May 3, 1964, during our 110th Anniversary weekend celebrations.


Our Czech Torah Scroll
 

                                                                   

We hold in our Holy Ark a precious Sefer Torah which is one of 1,564 Czech Memorial Sifre Torah looted by the Nazis during World War II from the Jewish communities of Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia. This Sefer Torah is from the town of Pisek and was written in the middle of the 19th Century. Our special Torah is a memorial to the Jewish Community of Pisek and to all the Jewish martyrs of the Holocaust. This Torah, like others now spread throughout the world, spreads light as a harbinger of the future of Judaism and bears witness to the glory of God.

The Memorial Scrolls Trust, a U.K. non-profit organization, has recently begun to reach out to synagogues and other institutions who received the Czech scrolls to gather updated information about them. They plan to continue to enhance their website so it becomes “a repository of all knowledge concerning the 1564 scrolls, the Jewish history of the towns they came from, the Jews of those towns, their fate, survivors stories, photos, etc. Also where the scrolls are now, how they are used and honored etc.” Read more about the Memorial Scrolls Trust on their website.

 

Year-Round Torah Covers

Four of our Torahs are dressed in beautiful contemporary-design covers representing Redemption, Gates of Heaven, Worship, and Creation. Our fifth is a Sephardic Torah, surrounded by a decorative silver case. (Torah covers made by www.kuvinoren.com)

 

High Holy Day Torah Covers

Each year at Selichot services our year-round Torah covers are replaced with these beautiful white covers, two of which depict a mirror image design of Creation. Every High Holy Day season, the Congregation is awed anew when the ark curtains open on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, revealing these very special Torah covers.

 

Our Cemeteries

The Congregation Gates of Heaven Cemetery is located at 2045 Watt St, Schenectady, NY 12304.

Directions

Find a Grave Page

Our cemetery gates are open from April through November on Sundays from 9am to 5pm. Please note that during the week and Saturdays, the cemetery is locked, however, you may visit the cemetery whenever you want by contacting the temple office at 518-374-8173 to make arrangements to borrow a key.

Congregation Gates of Heaven also owns plots in a dedicated section of Historic Vale Cemetery, located at 907 State Street in Schenectady. Gates' section is to your immediate right as you enter the cemetery from Brandywine (section EN on the Vale website map).

If you have questions or concerns about our cemeteries or about purchasing a plot, please contact our temple office at 518-374-8173.

CGOH Cemetery Opening For The Season:

Our CGOH Cemetery, located at 2045 Watt St, Schenectady, NY 12304, was open from 9am to 5pm from the first Sunday in April and thereafter every Sunday until the first snowfall in November.  Gates are otherwise locked, however you may visit the cemetery whenever you want by contacting the temple office at 518-374-8173 to make arrangements to borrow a key. 

Our cemetery improvement efforts are continuing and the 2023-2024 season will bring some important and visible upgrades. A new walkway and gathering space have been constructed, the old chain link gate has been replaced with a custom wrought iron gate, broken fencing will be & has been replaced and other landscaping improvements will continue throughout the cemetery. This work, along with the new row of Arborvitae and new shed structure, was made possible by the generous donors who support our beautification and improvement project efforts. 

Please contact Eileen Michaels, Cemetery Committee Chair, by contacting the office 518-374-8173, for more information about how you can help support our cemetery and our improvement project.

Please note that Josh Cooper-Ginsburg is available to assist any synagogue member interested in purchasing the right to burial at the CGOH Watt Street Cemetery or at our CGOH section of Vale Cemetery, located to the right, inside the Brandywine Ave entrance.

Mon, March 18 2024 8 Adar II 5784