Windows of Jerusalem

Marc Chagall's Windows of Jerusalem lithographs are some of the most important works in Chagall’s oeuvre as they showcase the beauty and intricacy with which Chagall designed an architectural masterpiece in the stained glass windows at the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center. The accumulation of years of labor, this lithograph series portrays Chagall’s passion for religious narration and the inescapable draw that everyone has to his dreamy interpretation of them.

In 1959, Dr. Mariam Freund (National President of the Hadassah) and Joseph Neufeld (architect who designed the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center) commissioned Marc Chagall to design the stained-glass windows for the synagogue that was to be part of the medical center. Each of the twelve windows would represent one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Chagall worked on the project for two years, with the windows ultimately exhibited in Paris in June of 1961 and at the Museum of Modern Art New York in the winter of 1961. In February 1962, they were permanently installed in the synagogue. Chagall created the lithographic series The Twelve Maquettes for the Stained Glass Windows for Jerusalem after the image of these original stained glass windows.

The twelve tribes of Israel represent the twelve kin groups of ancient Israel, who are each traditionally descended from one of the twelve sons of Jacob: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. Upon Jacob’s death, the territory of Israel was divided amongst his twelve sons, designating the twelve tribes of Israel.