On December 19, 2015, we celebrated the completion of our Community Mosaic Project. Hannah Richman Kearney, who helped design the mosaic and orchestrate the process, shares details of the process of creating our mosaic:

 We looked at photographs of the sample mosaics created by congregants, and explored themes and commonalities. One theme that we were particularly connected to was the idea of a spiral or circle as a representation of community. We were also very drawn to Jacob’s ladder, Torah, and tree themes. An overwhelming theme was the idea of Jewish journey—different pathways into both Judaism and community. 

During our conversations, we were drawn to the idea of representing these concepts in a way that was fairly abstract. We wanted congregants to be able to find these images in a slow way: uncovering details and discovering different elements of the story being told, rather than immediately recognizing every part. For example, the Jacob’s ladder is not perhaps so obvious at first—it is the negative space around the pages of the Torah scroll.  

A few pieces also had areas of or representations of light, which we were very interested in, and we choose the bright yellow to be that representation within the piece. The spiral of blue spinning throughout the background represents our community through the motif of water coming together. 

The background rectangles were inspired by both our ark and our atrium floor. Throughout the mosaic assembly process, members of the community filled in these rectangles with different patterns and textures, each rectangle representing a unique part of the fabric of TBE. Different subtle symbols are also woven throughout the background, including a tree, a sun, and a ladder. The color tones of the tiles selected were meant to remind ourselves of the Jerusalem stone in our courtyard, and to reference our community’s connection to Israel. 

The Torah cover is loosely inspired by the Rakovnik Torah scroll cover, rescued from the Holocaust, which was represented in one of the mosaics created by congregants. The three triangles are made of reflective mirror glass, so that we can see ourselves as part of the story. Reflective glass is also used throughout the blue areas, and particularly in lower sections of the mosaic, so that children can see themselves as part of the mosaic. 

The branches on the left are meant to reference our TBE logo and the Tree of Life. We also continued the branches, turning them into more human shapes, on the right side, drawing the image together.