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Light Drizzle Fog/Mist A stained-glass mystery
How were windows from a Pennsylvania synagogue acquired by Eitz Chayim in West Hempstead?
If a passerby wasn’t looking for the magnificent, soaring, stained-glass windows that adorn Eitz Chayim of Dogwood Park, they would never know they’re there. Most of the windows are partially or completely hidden from street view.
They are the focus of much attention just the same — the subject of a dispute among board members of the former Beth Israel synagogue in Mahanoy City, Pa., who claim that they were removed without authorization after the synagogue ceased operation, and were installed in Eitz Chayim, an Orthodox synagogue in West Hempstead.
The dispute was initially reported last week by Jewish Week reporter Ted Merwin, who is also a religion professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa.
According to several members of the Mahanoy Area Historical Society, the Beth Israel synagogue closed in the 1970s due to lack of attendance, and had its windows boarded up shortly thereafter. “One of the Beth Israel members had the keys to the building, and apparently gave [them] to someone who went in and took the windows out from the inside,” said Paul Coombe, a historian for the society. Coombe said he was familiar with the people who had the keys to the synagogue, but refused to identify them.
“Nobody ever knew that it happened until another congregant discovered the windows were gone, and then questioned who gave permission to do it,” he added. “It was sort of an inside job.” Coombe acknowledges that this is what he has heard, but he has no direct knowledge of why the windows were removed.
“Everything was taken with the appropriate knowledge of all the folks involved,” said Natan Hect, president of Eitz Chayim and a West Hempstead resident. Hect, however, said that he, too, was basing his comments on what others have told him, and that he was not involved in the removal or transfer of the windows.
“I would appreciate the opportunity to talk to the people who have a problem with our synagogue and not discuss things through the press,” he added. Calls and emails to Eitz Chayim’s rabbi, Efrem Schwalb, were not returned.
