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Twelve Tribes: general design concept
Maria Stolz, a member of Temple Beth El who is also a distinguished stained glass artist, conceived, designed, and built the stunning stained glass windows that line the upper walls on three sides of our sanctuary.
Design research took her a full three months of browsing through theological and local libraries, surfing the net, and following up on responses either by computer or telephone with rabbis and distinguished individuals who have worked on new and recent scholarship on the Twelve Tribes of Israel from as far away as Reston, Virginia, Baltimore, Maryland, Manhattan, New York and Cincinnati, Ohio. Her intent was to design windows never before conceived, distinct and diverse from the very famous Chagall windows, for example. She incorporated the neo-classical, soft realism of several ideas or themes using colored glass and texture as her paint brush. She used a minimum of painting and firing. All the panels have “hidden” Jewish messages and themes (see below the images of the windows).
Design themes and hidden symbols
 Color key as prescribed in Gen. 49:26, Aaron's breastplate that symbolized the twelve tribes (also used by Chagall)
Dominant colors: blue, red, yellow, and green
Symbols of the law: Torah, Star of David, ram's horn (or shofar), and menorah
Symbols of creation: sea, firmament, earth, vegetation, and seasons
Jewish holidays including Shabbat, Passover, and Sukkot
In keeping with early Jewish tradition, the windows have no human faces or figures except hands
Four heraldic animals of Judaism (dove, lion, eagle, and stag), representing the four seasons, the four cornerstones of Judaism
Iconography of famous biblical heroes assigned to the tribes
Feminine aspects of God or "shekhinah" including numerology, Kabbalah, or mystical relevance
The "seven species," barley, wheat, dates, figs, grapes, olives, and pomegranates
Flora indigenous to Israel
To contact Maria Stolz: www.renaissance-glassworks.com or email: stainedglass@renaissance-glassworks.com
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