Portland, Oregon. Congregation Beth Israel, 3rd building (1928). Exterior. Photo courtesy of Louis Davidson @ synagogues360.org.
Portland, Oregon. Congregation Beth Israel, 3rd building (1928). Sanctuary. Photo courtesy of Louis Davidson @ synagogues360.org.
USA: Portland, Oregon's Beth Israel Stained Glass Window Restoration Project
by Samuel D. Gruber
(ISJM) While many
historic American religious congregations, including synagogues, are
having a hard time maintaining their buildings and especially raising
funds to properly care for and restore stained glass windows, good
news comes from Portland, Oregon, where Congregation Beth Israel (CBI) has begun an ambitious campaign to restore the windows in their 1928
Byzantine style sanctuary. The building was listed on the National
Register of Historic Places in 1979 – one of the first synagogues
so designated.
Congregation
Beth Israel, designed by Morris
H. Whitehouse, Herman
Brookman and Harry
A. Herzog, is one of the
grandest synagogues in the pacific Northwest, and one of the finest
examples of the Byzantine style in the country. Built shortly before
the onset of the Great Depression, the lavish building combines
historicism with contemporary Art Deco motifs, and what was at the
time modern design.
You can visit the
sanctuary online through the photos of Louis Davidson at
synagogues360.org.
The eighteen tall
windows around the sanctuary, grouped in triads, and the round window above the Ark, were designed by Albert Gerlach, chief designer for Portland's Fuller Studios.
Gerlach was chosen for the job in 1926 after a “manufacturer's
competition” resembling an architectural competition, but something
unusual for choosing stained glass. Gerlach reportedly worked closely Henry Berkowitz, the congregation's rabbi beginning in 1928, in choosing the subject matter for the windows, which
include days of the Creation, major festivals, biblical personalities
and symbols of the tribes of Israel. Each window is 20 feet high and
three feet widow, and taken together these complement the interior
architectural articulation of applied elements and blind round-head
arches, and they also echo the tall 4,500-pipes in Reuters organ.
There is also a stained glass “corona” step at the apex of the
great dome that surmounts the space. The windows add light and color
to the great space.
The restoration
and repair of three of the eighteen windows began on Monday, May 20.
The windows will spend the summer being restored. And will be
re-installed for High Holy Days. Meanwhile, colored decals of the
windows serve as place holders. This is the first phase of a
multi-year project.
Work has begun on
the middle three windows on the south wall, which face Flanders
Street. Following the general iconographic program, these depict
Rosh Hashanah, the Tribes of Levi and Judah, and the Patriarch Jacob.
This middle window is designated as the “Fellowship Window,”
symbolized by the clasped hands in the lower portion of the panel.
This was donated to the congregation by Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
and St. Mary’s Cathedral. Plans are to complete the other two sets
of long windows on the south side which sustain the most weather and
are in urgent need of restoration, .over the next two years.
David Schlicker
Stained Glass Studio is the glass conservator. According to the
Congregation website, he “is a noted stained glass artisan, with
over 30 years of experience in stained glass restoration and repair.
David is an adjunct professor of historic stained glass preservation
at the University of Oregon and a member of the Stained Glass
Association of America.”
The congregation's
Building and Grounds Committee has been working for several years on
a campus-wide inventory and maintenance plan, including
recommendations for capital improvements. This is an exemplary
undertaking, one that every congregation no matter how big or
small, should begin. My own congregation – Temple Concord in
Syracuse – is presently doing this for its buildings (for more
information on how to organize such a work, feel free to contact me). Good planning is necessary for safety and security, and it also saves money in the long run.
Congregation Beth
Israel wisely maintains a building fund for maintenance. With a
membership of close to 3,000 it is, of course, better positioned to
do this than many smaller, poorer congregations. Still, it is
important for all congregations – especially those with older
buildings – to have some money in place for repairs and not have to
always be forced to raise new money at a moment's notice. Fund
raising for maintenance should be on-going part of the planning
process. A CBI, the window restorations are made possible by a prior
gift of $100,000 by Harold and Arlene Schnitzer’s to the restoration fund, and a bequest from Jack Neustadter.
A Little History
CBI, founded in 1858, is the oldest
Jewish congregation in Oregon. In the late 19th century,
its monumental two-towered (165 feet) synagogue at Twelfth and
Southwest Main., erected in 1887, was one of the most prominent
building on the Portland skyline.
Portland, Oregon. Congregation Beth Israel, 2nd building, 1887. Sanctuary. Photo: postcard.
The new synagogue at Northwest 19th and Flanders Streets seats 1,000, and was dedicated in April 1928. Instead of the two-tower design, preferred 19th-century,its is distinguished by its 100 foot Byzantine-inspired dome. Other contemporary "Byzantine" synagogues include Boston's Ohabei Shalom, Chicago's Temple Isaiah and Detroit's Shaaray Zedek.
In 1948 the congregation erected the Sherman Education Center, opposite the Temple which was then expanded in 1994. In 1993, the Schnitzer Family Center, which includes a chapel, was dedicated to provide more classroom, office, and meeting space.
City
Guide to Sacred Spaces– Portland,
OR, pdf online at
http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/art/pdx_cityguide.pdf
Friedman, Elaine S., “Congregation Beth Israel,” the Oregon Encyclopedia online at http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/entry/view/congregation_beth_israel/ (accessed 6/21/2013)
Lowenstein, Steven. The Jews of Oregon. Portland: Jewish Historical Society of Oregon, 1987.Temple Beth Israel. Temple Beth Israel: A Temple for the Ages. Portland: Temple Beth Israel, 2002.
http://www.bethisrael-pdx.org
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