[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 7, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4681-S4682]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE LOST SHUL MURAL AT OHAVI ZEDEK SYNAGOGUE

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am proud to recognize Aaron Goldberg, 
Jeffrey Potash and the greater Ohavi Zedek community for their tireless 
efforts in relocating a treasured artifact in our State's Jewish 
community. For nearly two decades, the historically significant Shul 
Mural--a 105-year-old rare mural--has sat hidden behind the walls of 
Chai Adam Synagogue in Burlington's north end district. In May, after 
years of careful restoration and planning, the mural was safely moved 
to its new home, where it will finally be displayed to honor a 
prominent period in our State's Jewish history.
  Burlington's Jewish history dates back to the mid-1880s, when a large 
influx of Lithuanian Jews traveled from Eastern Europe to settle in 
Vermont. Ohavi Zedek Synagogue was established in 1885 by the 
Lithuanians, and has since remained a thriving community stronghold for 
Burlington's Jewish population. In 1889, the Chai Adam Synagogue was 
created by a group of Orthodox Jews previously aligned with Ohavi 
Zedek. It is here the Shul Mural was created.
  Stretching floor-to-ceiling, the Shul Mural depicts two lions and the 
Ten Commandments, two iconic symbols in the Jewish faith. The Shul 
Mural, painted by Ben Zion Black, uses a rare artistic style, one that 
dates back to before World War II and was prevalent in wooden 
synagogues across Eastern Europe. At that time, vast murals of iconic, 
hand-painted images sprawled entire walls and ceilings to capture the 
imagery held in Jewish Torah readings. The Shul Mural presents a rare 
folk design mixed with modern painting techniques, yet little is 
actually known about its genre, as most of these works were sadly 
destroyed during the Holocaust.
  In 1939, Ohavi Zedek and Chai Adam rejoined, and the old Chai Adam 
was sold and used as retail space and later a rug store. It was here 
that Adam Goldberg, a volunteer and historian of Ohavi Zedek Synagogue, 
discovered the mural. Through the years, the Shul Mural sat uncovered 
and ill-preserved, until 1986 when the space was renovated to an 
apartment complex, and Mr. Goldberg along with Ohavi Zedek archivist, 
Jeffrey Potash, pleaded with the new owner to cover the mural with a 
false wall so that it would not bear further decay.
  Over two decades later, when the apartment building was again sold in 
2012, its new owner, Steven Offenhartz, agreed to donate the mural to 
Ohavi Zedek. The false wall that had covered the Shul Mural for more 
than 20 years was lifted, and the construction team worked with 
Constance Silver, a conservator from Brattleboro, to stabilize and 
recover what was lost. At that point, decades of deterioration had 
taken their toll, and the once vibrant paint began to dull and flake 
away. Piece by piece, Constance reinforced and restored the painting.
  On May 6, 2015, after decades in hiding, the mural was successfully 
transported to Ohavi Zedek where it will be cleaned and further 
restored. The hard work and dedication of the entire team with the 
support of Burlington's community--which raised over $400,000 to 
support the restoration and transportation of this historic piece of 
art--made this incredible feat possible.
  Adam Goldberg, Jeffrey Potash, Steven Offenhartz, Constance Silver, 
and the many other members of the Ohavi Zedek and greater Burlington 
community should be congratulated for their support and dedication to 
protecting and restoring one of our State's most significant treasures. 
This important piece of Burlington's Jewish history will finally be on 
proper display for all to enjoy.
  I ask unanimous consent that that an article on the Shul Mural from 
the Burlington Free Press be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Burlington Free Press, May 14, 2015]

                  ``Lost'' Jewish Mural Finds New Home

               (By Zach Despart, Free Press Staff Writer)

       When the project was done, it might have appeared to 
     onlookers that a construction crew had no difficulty moving 
     the Lost Shul Mural to a new home in the Old North End.
       After all, the construction crew only had to remove the 
     roof of a Hyde Street building, lift via crane a brittle, 
     multi-panel, 105-year-old rare piece of art, place the mural 
     on a flatbed truck, drive it nearly half a mile uphill and, 
     with the strength of many workers, push the artwork, on 
     rollers, into Ohavi Zedek Synagogue.
       All in a day's work for a volunteer group of local 
     residents, who for almost three decades have been trying to 
     find a way to move the historic artifact from a hidden alcove 
     on Hyde Street to more suitable location.
       ``I had hoped to someday move the mural, but it's been over 
     29 years we've been waiting for this time,'' Ohavi Zedek 
     archivist Aaron Goldberg said Wednesday. ``It's a remarkable 
     achievement for the community to have this here.''
       The story of the lost work begins in 1910, when 
     Burlington's Jewish community commissioned Lithuanian artist 
     Ben Zion to paint a mural within the Chai Adam synagogue, 
     which was built on Hyde Street in 1889. The floor-to-ceiling 
     mural contains three panels that depict Jewish iconography, 
     including two lions and the Ten Commandments.
       In 1939, Chai Adam merged with Ohavi Zedek and vacated the 
     Hyde Street building.
       Congregants, in an effort to preserve the mural, hid the 
     piece behind a false wall. The ownership of the building 
     changed hands several times in the following decades, and a 
     private owner in 1986 converted the building into apartments.
       That year, Goldberg and other archivists persuaded the 
     owner to wall off the mural permanently with Sheetrock, so 
     the art would be safe for a later move. Many tenants over the 
     next two decades never knew the mural was there.
       But Burlington's Jewish community never forgot about the 
     lost mural. In 2012, some 26 years since the mural 
     disappeared from public view, the archivists of Ohavi Zedek 
     worked with the owner of the building to uncover the artwork.
       They decided to move the artifact to Ohavi Zedek and 
     proudly display the mural in the lobby. For the next three 
     years, a dedicated group of congregants developed a plan for 
     the big move, and raised more than $400,000.
       ``This is a very innovative job,'' Goldberg said. ``This 
     took two and a half years of planning.''


                              The big move

       The moment Goldberg for decades had waited for arrived 
     Wednesday. Shortly after 8 a.m. on the warm, calm morning, 
     crews used a crane to lift off a pre-cut section of the roof 
     of the synagogue-turned-apartment-building on Hyde Street, 
     exposing the old cupola that held the mural.
       The mural itself was not visible to onlookers. For 
     protection, it was encased in cushioning made of Chinese silk 
     and other materials. Bob Neeld, the structural engineer, said 
     this project required special attention to minimize any 
     vibrations that could damage the mural.
       ``Even a three-story building can be built to handle 
     several inches of movement,'' Neeld said. For this move, 
     Neeld added, the crew was hoping to limit movement ``to a 
     couple thousandths of an inch.''
       The mural itself is made of less than half an inch of 
     plaster on a wood lathe. To stabilize the century-old 
     material before the move, crews reinforced the artwork with 
     mortar.
       After the roof was off, the crane lifted the fragile mural, 
     encased in a specially built steel frame, from the second 
     floor of the structure and placed the artifact onto a flatbed 
     truck. The mural and frame stood about feet tall and 15 feet 
     wide, and weighed about 6,500 pounds.
       Next came a slow parade through the Old North End, as the 
     truck crept north on Hyde Street, east on Archibald Street 
     and south on North Prospect Street, onto the lawn of Ohavi 
     Zedek. A crowd of congregants, many of them with cameras, 
     followed the informal procession. Burlington police blocked 
     the intersections along the way. Perplexed motorists 
     scratched their heads.
       In front of the synagogue, another crane lifted the mural 
     onto a makeshift bed of rollers on a wooden ``landing pad.'' 
     Once there, about of dozen laborers pushed the 3-ton mural 
     through an opening into the lobby. Next week, crews will 
     hoist the mural above the lobby, where the art will hang for 
     visitors to see, much as it did on Hyde Street 105 years ago.

[[Page S4682]]

       Organizers planned the move to take 12 hours, but it took 
     just three--a result engineers chalked up to good weather and 
     meticulous planning.


                         Community significance

       Thousands of European synagogues--and the ornate murals 
     within the places of worship--were destroyed by the Nazis 
     during the Holocaust. The Lost Shul Mural is one of the few 
     remaining murals from that time period in existence, said 
     Goldberg, the Ohavi Zedek archivist.
       Rabbi Joshua Chasan said the restoration of the lost mural 
     was important not only to Burlington's Jewish community, but 
     to Jews around the world.
       ``It's a benefit to the Jewish people internationally to 
     have a piece of folk art from the world the Nazis 
     destroyed,'' Chasan said. ``In that sense, it's a memorial to 
     those who died in the Holocaust and . . . to that Jewish 
     world that perished.''
       Goldberg said that in addition to being a Jewish relic, the 
     lost mural is an important connection to Burlington's rich 
     history of hosting immigrants. Among the European immigrants 
     who settled in Burlington during the 19th century were a 
     group of Lithuanian Jews who moved into the city's North End, 
     a neighborhood that for decades came to be known as Little 
     Jerusalem.
       ``This is immensely important to the preservation 
     immigration history in Vermont,'' Goldberg said. ``It is the 
     only example of its kind we know of in the U.S., and one of 
     the few remaining remnants in the world.''
       Janie Cohen, director of the University of Vermont's 
     Fleming Museum, said having such a rare piece of art in 
     Burlington is remarkable.
       ``The fact there are so few of these left in the world, and 
     we have one in Burlington--it's phenomenal,'' said Cohen, who 
     watched the move Wednesday.
       Former Vermont Gov. Madeleine Kunin, who helped raise money 
     for the move and the restoration, walked with the crowd that 
     followed the mural as the truck traveled through the Old 
     North End.
       ``Today is so exciting, because many people thought it 
     would never happen: How can you move something that's part of 
     a wall?'' she said.
       One man on the synagogue lawn had a special connection to 
     the lost art. He remembers seeing the mural 76 years ago. 
     Mark Rosenthal, 84, grew up in Burlington and remembers 
     seeing the mural as a child at Chai Adam in the 1930s.
       ``My father and I would go on holidays,'' Rosenthal said. 
     ``I remember the whole scene where the mural was, and I'm 
     moved and touched by what is taking place today. I can't 
     believe it's happening.''

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