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22 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
TEMPLE, continued from page 21<br />
community, myself and colleagues from<br />
that time, brought the town together that<br />
same evening, for prayer and to rally for<br />
solidarity, and that attack happened just<br />
two days before the Jewish new year. It<br />
was, for all of America, a very, very dark<br />
day and period, but being in a position to<br />
bring solidarity, comfort, hope, healing to<br />
a broken community was very gratifying,”<br />
Meyer said.<br />
Meyer also brought up the ongoing<br />
presence of anti-semetic and racist<br />
incidents directed toward Marblehead’s<br />
Jewish community, which he described<br />
as being painful, but, still, an opportunity<br />
for the community to come together and<br />
heal.<br />
“There have been and continue to be<br />
antisemitic and racist incidents in the<br />
community, which, as a rabbi, and as part<br />
of a ministerial association, calls for our<br />
response. It's incredibly painful and it<br />
continues to grow. But being in a position<br />
to offer direction, resolve, maybe some<br />
healing to the community, again, it's very<br />
gratifying,” he said.<br />
The sanctuary pulpit at Temple<br />
Emanu-El sits below massive sheets of<br />
blue stained glass, built by Swampscott<br />
artist Ingrid Pichler, which faces a droplet-shaped<br />
room with wavy pews. The<br />
room’s blue stained glass Ner Tamid, or<br />
eternal lamp, hangs above the sanctuary<br />
resembling a water droplet.<br />
“We designed it so that everything here<br />
in the sanctuary evokes water. Geographically,<br />
we’re a block from the ocean and so<br />
it's certainly appropriate for Marblehead’s<br />
synagogue, but also spiritually, because<br />
water is the primordial source of life,”<br />
Meyer said. “The light in front is called<br />
a Ner Tamid, a perpetual lamp every<br />
synagogue you go into would have one<br />
and it resembles a droplet of water. What<br />
I wanted to do with the artist here was<br />
to recall a concept in Jewish life that the<br />
spirit of of a human being can be likened<br />
to a droplet of water which comes from<br />
all over the place to its source, which is<br />
the ocean, hence the spirit of the human<br />
being returning to its divine source.”<br />
A mandolin and small amplifier also<br />
sit on the pulpit. Meyer, who plays guitar,<br />
and spent his summers working as a jewish<br />
song leader as a teenager, emphasizes<br />
music in all of his sermons and records<br />
Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead.<br />
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Stained glass casts colors across the Ark at Temple Emanu-El.
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