The 20th century artist Marc Chagall was born and raised in a Hasidic community in the city of Vitebsk, Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire. He moved to France as a young man but throughout his long life his art continued to reflect the home and Jewish mysticism of his youth. Chagall’s works are instantly recognizable by their intense colors and floaty, dreamlike quality. Jewish themes are ever-present.
In the early 1960s he did a series of 12 stained glass windows for the synagogue at Hebrew University’s Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. The 12 sons of Jacob became the 12 tribes of Israel, each represented by a gem stone and other symbols according to the blessings of Jacob and Moses. Chagall’s Jerusalem windows are brilliant expressions of these spiritual and temporal foundations of Israel.
The Hadassah Medical Center synagogue is open to visitors Sunday-Thursday, 8am-3:30pm.
See tours to Jerusalem here.