Jewish mural found in North Adams attic offers rare insight into 19th-century immigrants

NORTH ADAMS - A Jewish mural lost for decades has been found in an attic in North Adams.

Dedham historian Carol Clingan is passionate about Jewish Preservation and Jewish history. 

"When I first saw it, my jaw dropped! Here is this treasure - this absolute treasure - it's obviously Jewish," Clingan said. 

While working on another project, someone happened to come across this 100-plus-year-old mural in the attic of an old building in North Adams. It's 25 feet long and 5 feet high and hangs suspended from the ceiling of what used to be a synagogue of the first Jewish Congregation in that town but has now been subdivided into apartments.

"It's very, very fragile, because it's made of something called conte crayon, which is like pastels that we used to use when we were kids, and if you touch it, the color comes off," she said. 

It was commissioned by the immigrant  community in North Adams and created in the late 1890s. 

"They all came from the same area of Lithuanian and Belarus, but their culture was Lithuanian - their Jewish culture," Clingan said. The image became the décor for the sanctuary in the synagogue in North Adams. "Then these people clearly wanted to have something that looked like what they came from and what their home," she said. T

The mural consists of Jewish motifs. "The pride of place goes to the Ten Commandments - the tablets. In Hebrew, on the top, 'Know before whom you stand.' It's a little faded, but there are two American flags. Here are people who came from Lithuania, who were Jewish, who wanted to celebrate Jewish faith and yet they wanted to say 'We're American,'" she said. 

Now Clingan's mission is to preserve that mural. With the help of the Mural in the Attic Committee, she found a home for the mural at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst where thousands will get to view it. Carol said her biggest challenge now is getting the mural moved to its new location, which is very costly and delicate process.

"What's really important is so ," she said. She still needs to raise about $150,000 to move the mural, but she says the artwork is far more valuable.  

"There are hardly any examples of that kind of art left in the whole world. The Nazi destroyed all synagogues in Europe that had murals like that," she said.