RHINEBECK JEWISH CENTER NEW BUILDING RIBBON CUTTING
Date and Time
Sunday Sep 6, 2015
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM EDT
Location
102 Montgomery Street
Rhinebeck, NY 12572
Contact Information
RSVP 845-876-7666
Send Email
Description
RHINEBECK JEWISH CENTER NEW BUILDING RIBBON CUTTING
The first Synagogue in over 300 years Rhinebeck history.
With great joy we invite the community at large to join us for the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the new RJC Building Sunday September 6th 4pm.
Cocktails and small bites will be served.
The new building will serve as a synagogue, a hebrew school, a library, and a space for community programs and events, and so much more. We are thrilled to unveil this new space and to utilize it to better serve our community.
This is the first time in over 300 years of Rhinebeck's history that a Synagogue is being built.
Please join us and fellow local businesses, the press, community members and elected officials to celebrate this momentous occasion.
The new Synagogue has recycled wood from the existing 100 year old barn preciously standing in its spot, giving it new life in a community center. Coupled with green technology such as rainwater collection and passive heating and cooling, the new building will be energy efficient and proudly green.
A Stained Glass Window From The Past Now Glows For The Future Lida was a bustling town in eastern Poland when the Nazi’s bombed it to oblivion 74 years ago along with an historic synagogue during that dark time in history. Lida was a town much like Rhinebeck, and now a stained glass window has been installed in the newly built Rhinebeck Jewish Center (RJC) at 102 Montgomery Street that pays homage to one that was destroyed in Lida’s Main Synagogue. Stained glass artist, Doris Cultraro, owner of DC Studios Stained Glass in Germantown, just completed the installation of 25 stained glass windows she designed and created for the RJC. The theme of the lost 12 Tribes of Israel, requested by the Rabbi, is depicted in 24 of those windows that span the main sanctuary and the study/community room. The feature sanctuary window pays homage to Lida’s destroyed Synagogue and glows once again with renewed vigor as a beacon of light and hope. The tribute to Lida’s Main Synagogue window is a project that Cultraro has wanted to create for many years. Her mother, Bella Goldfischer, was born in Lida and lived there until her miraculous and daring escape with her Father Leon, and Brother, Michael Stoll, from a Nazi death train bound for Majdanek concentration camp. They survived the following years, until WWII ended, living and hiding in the Naliboki Forest as partisan fighters with the famous Bielski Brothers Brigade, memorialized in the recent Daniel Craig movie “Defiance” directed by Edward Zwick”. Several years ago, after finding vintage postcards depicting of the Lida Synagogue, and its interior with beautiful stained glass, the artist knew that someday recreating the stained glass window design would become a reality. “Fabricating the 12-square-foot window, which depicts the Star of David, has been a personal dream of mine, to honor my family, and the many lives that were lost, and to once again illuminate a beautiful synagogue for future generations”, said Cultraro. Rabbi Hanoch Hecht approached Doris about the stained glass window project. After learning about her mother’s incredible survival during the Holocaust, he knew that the two of them would work together when the time came to build the new synagogue and incorporate the beauty of stained glass into the sanctuary. “The Jewish people must remember the past as we create a future and there is no better way than this window representing that.” says Rabbi Hecht, and adding, “The dedication for the new Rhinebeck Jewish Center will take place on Sunday, September 6th at 4 p.m. This will be the first synagogue in Rhinebeck’s 300 year history. This Center includes the beautiful main sanctuary and multipurpose room, a Hebrew School and Library, facilities for Shabbat dinners, and the Jewish experience for children.” The crowning feature window in the main sanctuary above the Bimah (or pulpit), where the Torah Scrolls are stored, is a redesign of the magnificent window stylized from the Lida Synagogue, and it is surrounded by 12 colorful windows representing the symbols of the dispersed lost Tribes of Israel. “When viewing the glow of color through these jewel-like windows, the light sparkles and brightly illuminates the interior and touches the soul. The beauty of stained glass is that it is a living medium of dynamic color and is never static - a message that all of us are living, dynamic, and never static as we continue to remember where we came from, to have respect for each other, and where we go as we look to the future,” says Doris. Contact for more information: Doris Cultraro, DC Studios or Rabbi Hecht, Rhinebeck Jewish Center 845-876-3200 ( DC Studios) 845-876-7666 (Rhinebeck Jewish Center) websites: www.dcstudiosllc.com www.rhinebeckjewishcenter.com email: dcstudios@msn.com rjc@rhinbeckjewishcenter.com | |