A Learning Link to the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

What is so special about a ceiling? Most of us never even notice the ceiling of the room we are in. After all, it is usually just painted the same color as the rest of the room. So why even talk about a ceiling? Believe it or not, the colorful picture shown here is actually the wooden ceiling of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. Beautiful ceilings such as this were once found in synagogues throughout Poland. They were very special artistic creations.

A synagogue is a Jewish house of worship. Before World War II there were millions of Jews living all over Europe and they had beautiful synagogues wherever they lived. Every big city and every small town, or shtetl, had a synagogue. Artists went from place to place offering to paint pictures on the ceilings and walls of the synagogues. And what pictures they painted--lions and lambs, birds and flowers, all in bright colors and imaginative designs!

During World War II, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi government unleashed a war against all Jews and Jewish things. The beautiful synagogues and their special art were destroyed.

At the museum, you can see a magnificent ceiling just like one that decorated a synagogue in Poland, researched and designed by Los Angeles artist Joanne Abensour. It helps us remember how beautiful the synagogues were, and to think about the many Jewish families who once celebrated the Sabbath and holidays in synagogues throughout Europe.

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You can see this ceiling and learn more about the Jewish people, their interests and way of life in the exhibit "The World That Was" at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.

This information was provided courtesy of the Jewish Federation's Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, on Museum Row at 6006 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, call (323) 761-8170 or visit http://www.jewishla.org/html/l.a._holocaust_museum.htm.