CHICAGO — Standing sentry in a quiet corner of Sukkat Shalom synagogue in north suburban Wilmette, the cherubim on a pair of historic and artistically significant Holy Ark doors have found a new home.
The carved wooden doors, created in 1951 by a renowned sculptor, the late Milton Horn, had their genesis at a synagogue in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood.
Rabbi Samuel Gordon at Sukkat Shalom said his North Shore synagogue received the doors as a gift from members of the Kol Ami congregation, the second stop on the doors’ journey after the closing of their historic Water Tower Place downtown location.
“These Holy Ark doors help maintain the history of the South Shore, Kol Ami and other reform congregations,” Gordon said. “We are able to keep these memories alive as the demographics changed and as congregations closed.”
Holy Ark doors at synagogues pay homage to the original Ark of the Covenant, which according to the Bible held the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, Gordon said. Today, arks hold a synagogue’s Torah.
When Horn’s creations first debuted at the South Shore synagogue in 1951, the cherubim-themed design was considered rather controversial, Gordon said, as some found the human likeness in violation of the Second Commandment’s warning against graven images.
The doors, though, became part of the indelible memories of those who grew up in the community.
“I can just see my dad, who passed away two years ago at 93, standing in front of those doors at my brother’s bar mitzvah,” said Judy Buckman, executive director of Sukkat Shalom, whose family belonged to the South Shore congregation on Jeffery Boulevard where the Holy Ark doors were installed in the early 1950s.
“When I look at the doors, I see all the memories of my youth,” Buckman said.
More than six decades later, the traveling doors are in many ways reflective of their new home, Gordon said, both aesthetically and spiritually.
The Sukkat Shalom congregation, established 18 years ago, did not have a permanent location of its own until 2012, Gordon said, when the synagogue was created by renovating a midcentury building and former Christian Science Church.
Until then, the Sukkat Shalom congregation had gathered on Fridays, Saturdays and High Holy Days at three churches in Wilmette, when space was available.
Those friendships forged with neighboring religious congregations over the years remain strong, Gordon said, even as his own congregation found a permanent home.
“We have a great deal of interfaith relationships that exist, and which are core to our mission and culture,” Gordon said.
After being witness to a $15,000 restoration of the doors, which included removing thick layers of varnish and bringing back the wood’s natural patina, Gordon and his congregation are hopeful the historic artifacts have found a permanent home at the synagogue, where they have been since June.
“We see this as a sacred trust and a way of finding inspiration,” Gordon said, adding: “These doors have a great narrative.”
