|
August 23, 2002/Elul 15 5762, Vol. 54, No. 49
Let there be lightValley synagogue adds stained glass to sanctuary
BARRY COHEN
|
 Stained glass windows of a burning bush and a Jerusalem skyline in Temple Beth Sholom's sanctuary have helped create an environment conducive to prayer. Photo by Barry Cohen |
Temple Beth Sholom of Chandler recently installed two stained glass window displays, approximately 3 feet by 3 feet, on opposite sides of the sanctuary's bema. Congregants are greeted by a Jerusalem cityscape to the right and the burning bush to the left.
Carmen Katz, a congregant and religious school teacher, who moved to the United States more than a decade ago from Ramat HaSharon, Israel, designed the windows.
"I did the design from my heart and soul," says Katz.
For the second display, she chose the abstract burning bush in order to work with different colors - deep red, orange, yellow and purple - and to complement the more concrete presentation of Jerusalem earth tones, she explains.
Framing the top of the Jerusalem cityscape is the Hebrew text from Psalms 137:5, "If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand wither."
The burning bush is framed by the Hebrew text from Exodus 3:2, "there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed."
Katz communicated to the synagogue leadership through a congregant that she was interested in designing new stained glass windows for the sanctuary, says Kay Lapid, temple administrator. "Stained glass artwork is her secret passion."
Once Katz submitted her design proposal, "it was a no-brainer. It was absolutely gorgeous," she explains.
Temple Beth Sholom dedicated the windows on Friday, Aug. 3.
"The effect it has when you walk in (the sanctuary) is amazing. Right away, you know you're in a temple," says Roy Birnbaum, synagogue membership chairman.
Congregants have been working for the past two and a half years to transform the sanctuary to fit Temple Beth Sholom's personality, he adds, since the synagogue moved into a building that previously was the Crossroads Church of the Nazarine. The men's club has repainted the walls and provided tallitot (prayer shawls). Fred Zeidman, assistant executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix and a woodworker in his spare time, replaced the crosses at the end of the pews with Jewish stars. Dirk Van Markestyn, congregant and buildings and grounds custodian, refurbished the menorot on the wall behind the bema and repaired the sanctuary's lighting and audio systems.