The Chagall Windows

Besides being one of Jerusalem’s top medical care centers, The Hadassah Ein Kerem medical complex also houses a brilliant piece of Jewish art in the Chagall Windows that adorn the campus synagogue. The twelve magnificent stained glass windows, which describe the 12 tribes of Israel, reflect deeply the artist’s love of humanity and the Jewish people.

Chagall drew most of his inspiration from the Bible, especially the blessing of Jacob to his sons and Moses’ blessings to the tribes of Israel. Every brilliantly painted window contains a quotation and themes from one of the blessing as well as a single dominant color.

The windows took two years to complete, and were dedicated in February 1962 in honor of Hadassah’s 50th birthday. It was the artist who best summed up the monumental nature of his undertaking: “All the time I was working, I felt my mother and father looking over my shoulder; and behind them were Jews, millions of other vanished Jews – of yesterday and a thousand years ago.”