«My goal is to restore the window, yet reveal its history.»

In 2022, the Jewish Muse­um recei­ved a spe­cial gift from the Biel Syn­ago­gue: a stained-glass rosette win­dow that once hung abo­ve the Torah shri­ne (inven­to­ry num­ber JMS 2083). Frie­de­ri­ke Szlo­sze, our glass con­ser­va­tor, is curr­ent­ly clea­ning the object, repai­ring the cracks in the glass, res­to­ring the miss­ing parts and pre­pa­ring it for the museum’s new exhi­bi­ti­on. Elwira Spy­chals­ka, muse­um staff mem­ber, visi­ted Frie­de­ri­ke Szlo­sze in her stu­dio and spo­ke to her about cracks, flaws and pat­terns that imi­ta­te Hebrew script.

Elwira Spy­chals­ka: Ms. Szlo­sze, as a res­to­rer, how would you clas­si­fy the Biel rosette?

Frie­de­ri­ke Szlo­sze: The rosette is impres­si­ve in terms of its tech­ni­que, colour and design: the over­all con­s­truc­tion con­sists of a colou­red steel frame. Embedded in it are 17 etched colou­red glass panels pain­ted in schwarz­lot, a black ena­mel made out of lead. It is deco­ra­ted with a pat­tern of forms that look like Hebrew wri­ting. This pseu­do-script is a tri­bu­te to the syn­ago­gue the win­dow once adorned.

ES: What is pseudo-script?

FS: Pseu­do-script is a series of sym­bols and signs that imi­ta­te wri­ting, in this case Hebrew let­ters. You some­ti­mes see it in pain­tings. Until now, I only knew it from lite­ra­tu­re and con­fe­ren­ces; this is my first time see­ing pseu­do-script on an ori­gi­nal object. It con­veys the reli­gious con­text it was made for wit­hout being explicit.

ES: What is your approach to the res­to­ra­ti­on process?

FS: The pie­ce arri­ved in poor con­di­ti­on: dir­ty, cra­cked, and miss­ing pie­ces of glass. After I clea­ned it, the colors and deli­ca­te orna­men­ta­ti­on emer­ged cle­ar­ly. My aim is to repair the dama­ge in a way that respects and reta­ins the object’s his­to­ri­cal nar­ra­ti­ve, wit­hout com­pro­mi­sing its ori­gi­nal mate­ri­al. My goal is to pre­ser­ve the traces of time.

ES: How do you see your role as a restorer?

FS: Glass objects are works of art, his­to­ri­cal arti­facts, pie­ces of craft­sman­ship, and, like all art­works, a con­tri­bu­ti­on to our cul­tu­ral iden­ti­ty. My task is to pre­ser­ve and reve­al their sto­ries. It’s a crea­ti­ve and deep­ly respon­si­ble pro­cess. It’s not just about making some­thing look «pret­ty» again, as many peo­p­le think. What’s important to me is to con­ser­ve the objects so that they remain acces­si­ble to future generations.

ES: Thank you for sha­ring your insights with us!