THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605050042
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
For a moment there was absolute silence when Rabbi Israel Zoberman ordered the sanctuary lights turned off in Congregation Beth Chaverim's new synagogue in Virginia Beach Friday night.
Then, as the warm glow of a single deep golden light shone through the intricately worked metal of a newly placed sculpture, the sound began.
As if led by some unseen cantor, more than 150 worshipers drew their breaths in unison, then let them out in a deeply reverent murmur of approval.
``It even hit me,'' said a still-stunned Linda Gissen as she stood back to get a wider view of the work following the service.
Gissen is the Virginia Beach sculptor who designed and executed the 4-foot-high bronze and copper eternal light that was placed above the bima, or altar, in the synagogue on Rosemont Road earlier in the week.
Known for her work in Judaica, the traditional items used in practicing the Jewish faith, Gissen was approached last year by members of Beth Chaverim about the possibility of doing such a piece for the synagogue, which was then under construction.
At about the same time, congregation member Susan Maher was stunned by the sudden death of her husband, Daniel. The 43-year-old Chesapeake businessman died in late October, leaving behind Susan and their three teenage children.
When Susan Maher saw an eternal light included on a list of items still needed for Beth Chaverim's new building, she knew she had found the right memorial for her late husband.
``When I think of him, I think of a brightly shining light,'' she said of the man who in 1986 had received a Carnegie Medal of Honor for saving the life of a child he had pulled from a burning car.
As Maher and Gissen began meeting to discuss the sculpture last November, something unexpected happened.
``We just really bonded,'' Gissen said as she and Maher stood together accepting thanks from members of the congregation after Friday's service.
``She was just wonderful, I was so impressed,'' Maher added.
For both women, the months during which the work was executed were painful ones.
For Maher, it was a time of coming to grips with her own feelings and those of her children, as well as a time in which she had to carry on her husband's business and deal with the mounds of paperwork that any death entails.
For Gissen, it was a time in which she had to deal with the loss of the daughter of a close friend, a young woman who was killed in a terrorist attack.
``I never told Susan about that,'' she said, ``but I thought about it often as I worked on the piece.''
Despite the pain, or perhaps because of it, the sculpture has an exceptionally strong impact, as was evidenced by the congregation's reaction Friday night.
The impact comes first from the beauty of the light shining within the sculpted tongues of flame.
As the eyes move upward, there is a second, more subtle realization. Each link in the 14-foot chain from which the light is suspended is an individual man, woman or child. To Gissen, the chain represents the history of Judaism, the linkage of family, common history, values and beliefs.
On Friday evening she presented one of the links to Susan Maher as a symbol of something else: the friendship that had formed between two women working toward a common goal during a difficult period in both their lives. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Virginia Beach sculptor Linda Gissen stands below the 4-foot-high
bronze and copper eternal light she designed and executed for
Congregation Beth Chaverim's new synagogue.
by CNB