When Jews came to America from Europe, they often established synagogues that preserved specific local and regional customs. One such example is the Vilna Shul, built in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood in 1919 by Jews from Russia’s Vilna province, which includes most of modern-day Lithuania and part of Belarus. In the 1980s, the synagogue closed its doors, but a decade later Jews acquired the building and began efforts to restore and preserve it. Jennifer Stern writes:
The preservation of the Vilna is particularly fortunate, since its sanctuary contains a remarkable treasure: exuberant folk-art murals with decorative and Jewish motifs, painted in three phases during the 1920s (the earliest and most striking are from circa 1920). Synagogue murals like these were once popular in parts of the United States, but they’re now extremely rare. The Vilna has the sole surviving examples in New England. Only a handful are still to be seen anywhere. (One example is the Stanton Street Shul on the Lower East Side.)
The spacious sanctuary . . . on the second floor resembles classic New England churches, with its tall windows and rows of wooden pews. But details reveal its Jewish immigrant identity—like the megillah holders still standing by the handsome Torah ark, which are actually pickle barrels covered in red velvet. Stained glass ornaments in the doors connecting the sanctuary and the outer vestibule proudly feature multi-colored Stars of David. And mural painters (probably hired rather than from the congregation) decorated the walls and ceiling with colorful imagery.
Ongoing research and conservation since 1998 has revealed three layers of murals, each separated by a coat of beige paint. The first phase from about 1920 was the most ambitious. The ceiling and walls were covered in vivid floral and architectural motifs, with at least one large Star of David at the back. Most of these original images are still hidden by later overpainting. But the wall of the women’s section (on the same floor as the men’s section) has revealed two large scenes in shades of light blue: the tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron and the tomb of Rachel in Bethlehem.
Read more on Forward: https://forward.com/forverts-in-english/572262/boston-vilna-shul-folk-art-murals/