The supporting frames hold the entire ensemble in place while breaking it into pieces. Sunbursts and crowns and lions and wings and hexagrams and warm color and Hebrew letters (for wisdom) and gem like geometries form a halo surrounding the tablets of the law. One day when I have more time I’ll make it to the synagogue’s archive at the Jewish Theological Seminary and find out more about this fine example of local New York Jewish folk art. Handsome and archaic, to misquote Ivan Karamazov completely out of context, the skylight in the main sanctuary at Ansche Chesed is “worth the price of admission.”
