Featured Windows, June 2003

Temple Jacob windows

Building: Temple Jacob

City: Hancock

State: Michigan

Above are two of three large tripartite windows that are centrally located in three walls of Temple Jacob. Each window features a symbol in its central panel. The window on the left, given in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer Feld, holds a symbol of the Ark from the biblical story of Noah and the Ark. The window on the right, given in memory of Jacob Gartner, represents the Torah as tablets with the Ten Commandments. A third large window, not pictured, features the Star of David. Six smaller memorial windows hold other symbols:

a dove bearing the olive branch of peace, the shofar or ram's horn, blown during services on Yom Kippur, (the Day of Atonement),

the burning bush shown to Moses, hands in an attitude of blessing,

the eternal light, and the triangle, a mystical symbol.

Above the entrance is a window depicting the seven-branched menorah, a symbol of Judaism.

Dedicated in 1912, Temple Jacob was designed by Henry L. Ottenheimer and constructed out of brick and sandstone by local builder A. J. Verville Sr. on land donated by the Quincy Mining Company. The copper-domed synagogue was named after Jacob Gartner, its major benefactor. The maker of its windows has not yet been identified.

Temple Jacob was registered in the Michigan Stained Glass Census by Bill Kallman, P.E., and Joe Balachowski, R.A., of Hancock.

(MSGC 1997.0055)

Text by Betty MacDowell, Michigan Stained Glass Census, June , 2003.