16 | FEBRUARY 6 • 2020
Jews in the D
Stained-Glass Beauty
Windows from former Saginaw shul
need a new home.
H
adassah Hospital
in Jerusalem has its
famed Chagall glass
windows depicting the 12
Tribes of Israel. A lesser-known
series of stained-
glass windows more
than 50 years old
depicting the tribes
once adorned the old
building of B’
nai Israel
Synagogue in Saginaw,
created by the French
stained-glass artist Jean
Barillet.
In 2005, B’
nai Israel
shuttered its doors,
sold the building
for professional and
medical office space
and used the funds to
warehouse 13 of the
16 windows. Because
of their historical sig-
nificance, the windows
are registered with the
Michigan Stained Glass
Census.
But time is running
out. The storage lease ends in
December 2020.
Stanley Meretsky of West
Bloomfield, former president
of the Jewish Historical Society
of Michigan, is hoping a donor,
museum, congregation or
Jewish school will come to the
rescue and claim this piece of
Michigan Jewish history.
Meretsky remembers the
beauty of the windows when
they graced the synagogue
during the wedding ceremony
to his first wife, Rae, in the late
1960s. His ex-father-in-law,
Dave Ruskin, commissioned
and designed the 16 windows
as a gift to the congregation.
According to French
antiques dealer Marc Maison’
s
website, Jean Barillet followed
in the footsteps of his
father Louis Barillet,
who created stained
glass for religious and
civic and commercial
commissions.
Meretsky said he has
received only tentative
calls of inquiry, but he
hopes the windows can
someday be installed
in a synagogue or
displayed in a muse-
um dedicated to the
history of Jewish life in
Michigan.
“There is a rich
enough of a Jewish his-
tory in Michigan that it
warrants a museum all
its own,” said Meretsky,
who has also served
on the archives com-
mittee of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit. There are 80 regional
Jewish history museums in the
United States.
Meretsky, who is spearhead-
ing efforts to raise money for
their continued storage and
the search for a new location
to install and display the win-
dows, said, “I will do whatever
I can to preserve these win-
dows and make sure nothing
happens to them.”
For information, contact Meretsky at
stan@mcculloughcorp.net.
STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
A window from
the former B’
nai
Israel Synagogue in
Saginaw
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