Our Sanctuary

Our Windows

Our Sanctuary is graced with eight original Plastiglass 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 with Rabbi Michael Szenes regarding the Biblical symbolism. The mosaic Plastiglass 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 above) 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 1,564 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 MANTLES

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 MANTLES

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