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

ANDREW ROGERS

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