In the waning years of the 19th century, a small Jewish immigrant community in North Adams, Massachusetts — many of them from Lithuania — built a modest wooden synagogue. To bless their sacred space, they commissioned an artist from their homeland to paint a mural — a radiant symbol of faith and longing, bridging old-world devotion with new-world hope.
By the 1920s, the congregation moved on, and their former synagogue was repurposed as an apartment building. Hidden behind plaster and dust, the mural lingered unseen in the attic — a forgotten witness to generations passing below.
Decades later, retired writer and genealogist Carol Clingan heard whispers of its existence. When she finally located it, the mural was astonishingly intact, its colors still whispering through time. Restoring it, however, took more than reverence — it required nearly half a million dollars, patience, and passion.
Through a major preservation effort, the mural was delicately removed from the attic on October 30, 2024, and relocated to its new home at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. There, it now lives again in the light — a testament to art, faith, and the stubborn endurance of memory.
Though the name of the original painter has been lost, records suggest he was a Lithuanian immigrant, a vegetable seller by trade, whose artistry transformed humble walls into a divine vision. His work, once hidden away, now stands as a luminous echo of a people’s story — proof that even what is forgotten can one day be remembered.
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