[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 92 (Thursday, May 26, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S2738]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           THE RESTORATION AND PRESERVATION OF THE SHUL MURAL

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am proud to recognize the Ohavi Zedek 
community and former Vermont Governor and U.S. Ambassador to 
Switzerland Madeleine Kunin for their efforts to preserve and restore 
the Shul Mural. Painted in 1910 by Ben Zion Black, the mural was 
commissioned by Burlington's Lithuanian Jewish community, who had come 
to Vermont from the town of Kovno and its environs to escape Russian 
pogroms.
  The immigrants founded the Ohavi Zedek Synagogue in 1885 and the Chai 
Adam Synagogue 4 years later. It was at the latter synagogue that the 
Shul Mural was painted. Stretching from floor to ceiling, it depicts 
the Tent of the Tabernacle, as described in the Book of Numbers. The 
style in which it was painted was well-known to the members of Chai 
Adam, as it could be found in synagogues throughout Eastern Europe. 
Now, the Shul Mural is one of the few remaining examples of this style 
of painting in the world. The works which inspired it were destroyed, 
as part of the burning of synagogues and the extermination of millions 
of Eastern European Jews by the Nazis, including the decimation of 
Lithuania's Jewish population.
  In Burlington, the Ohavi Zedek and Chai Adam synagogues merged in 
1939. Chai Adam was sold. The building went through multiple uses and 
in 1986 the mural was covered with a false wall to protect it at the 
urging of Jeffrey Potash, a historian and Ohavi Zedek's archivist.
  In 2012, the building was sold once again. The new owner agreed to 
donate the mural to Ohavi Zedek and efforts began to move the mural, a 
massive undertaking that was successfully completed in 2015. Since 
then, work has been underway to fully restore the painting.
  The relocation and restoration of the mural were a significant 
undertaking, with costs exceeding $1 million. The funding came from 
foundations, historic preservation groups, arts organizations, and 
individuals.
  Governor Kunin, herself a Jewish immigrant, lent her leadership 
skills to the effort, chairing the Friends of the Mural Board. Governor 
Kunin's parents were German Jews who fled to Switzerland, where her 
father died. Her mother brought Madeleine and her brother, Edgar, to 
the United States to escape the Nazis when Madeleine was 6 years old 
and Edgar 10. Although her immediate family survived the Holocaust, 
Governor Kunin lost extended family in the concentration camps. She is 
fond of saying both she and the mural are survivors.
  Despite having arrived in the United States at a time of rising 
nativism, racism, and anti-Semitism, the families which had originally 
arrived from Lithuania continued to encourage their friends and former 
neighbors to follow them. At its peak, the community had more than a 
thousand members in Burlington. That community produced leaders in a 
number of fields, including Robert Larner, a physician who treated 
soldiers at Guadalcanal and Okinawa, and for whom Vermont's only 
medical school is now named, and Ed Colodny, the former CEO of U.S. 
Air.
  While the story of Burlington's Lithuanian Jewish community is 
unique, it is also a perfect example of what immigrants have brought 
and continue to bring to the United States. They enrich our country and 
society by sharing their art, their culture, and their experience.
  The story of the Shul Mural, the people who commissioned and created 
it, and those who ensured its preservation for future generations, is a 
Jewish story, an immigrant story, and a quintessentially American 
story.

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