When Wanda Peretz, an American artist and graphic designer, first saw the reconstructed ceiling of the Gwoździec Synagogue at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in 2016, she was captivated by its beauty and historical significance.
That moment sparked a decade-long journey to create The Ceiling, a rhyming verse storybook that weaves together art, faith and Jewish history for children and adults alike. The Ceiling, which captures the artistry and spiritual beauty of Poland’s wooden synagogues, is more than a book—it’s a tribute to a lost world and a celebration of artistic resilience.
The book’s launch took place on March 12 at ANU-Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, where a replica of a similar ceiling had first inspired Peretz years ago when the museum was still known as Beit Hatfutsot-the Nahum Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora.
JNS met with Peretz, who now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, in the lobby of Jerusalem’s King David Hotel to learn more about her and the book, which she described as “a narrative poem that brings to life the lost and nearly forgotten wooden synagogues of Poland and the Jewish artists who painted their prayer halls 300 years ago.”
Recalling her first trip from Los Angeles to Israel in 1994 with her husband as newlyweds, Peretz told JNS, “Avi and I spent our last full day wandering through Beit Hatfutsot. I was mesmerized by the models of synagogues from the Diaspora and especially the replica of the Chodorow synagogue ceiling, now suspended in the ANU’s main stairwell.”
That visit proved life-changing. “On the plane back to Los Angeles, I pored over the museum catalog. Before leaving Israel, at Ben-Gurion Airport, I turned to Avi and announced I wanted to convert. I had already looked up the next cycle of classes at the University of Judaism in LA.”
A legacy preserved
The wooden synagogues of Eastern Europe were architectural and artistic masterpieces built between the 17th and 19th centuries.
These timber structures featured intricate craftsmanship and vibrant murals, blending Jewish artistry with local traditions during relatively peaceful times. Tragically, by the end of World War II, all of the hundreds of these synagogues were systematically destroyed in the Holocaust.
Fortunately, thanks to the meticulous work of post-war architects Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka, their legacy was not lost. The Polish couple documented the synagogues in remarkable detail, producing drawings, photographs, and records that later became the foundation for modern reconstructions.
One of the most extraordinary reconstructions is the Gwoździec Synagogue ceiling, recreated by Handshouse Studio for the POLIN Museum in Warsaw.
Led by Rick and Laura Brown—who are neither Jewish nor Polish—the project revived traditional 16th-century techniques. Using raw timber and carefully crafted paint pigments, they engaged local communities in workshops during the summers of 2011 and 2012.
The result is a breathtaking exhibition featuring colorful zodiac figures, mythical creatures, including unicorns and Hebrew calligraphy, faithfully echoing the lost synagogue’s grandeur.
The original Gwoździec Synagogue was destroyed in 1914 when drunken Russian soldiers torched the town. However, between 1910 and 1913, photographer and artist Alois Breyer meticulously documented its interior and exterior.
His invaluable images, housed in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Archives, were instrumental in the ceiling’s reconstruction. Four of these original photographs appear in The Ceiling as endpapers.
Peretz’s path
Peretz’s artistic journey has been one of dedication and perseverance. Born in San Diego, she moved frequently due to her father’s service in the U.S. armed forces, even spending time in Australia.
Her conversion to Judaism deepened her connection to its artistic heritage, inspiring her work in ceremonial Jewish art, from Torah mantles to wedding canopies and educational murals. One of her pieces, exhibited in the Palisades Synagogue, survived the California wildfires.
Over the years, Peretz immersed herself in the study of the lost wooden synagogues of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Her research led her to two 18th-century Jewish itinerant artists, Israel ben Mordechai Lisnicki and Isaac ben Yehuda Leib HaCohen.
These master painters adorned the Gwoździec synagogue with imagery drawn from nature, Torah, and Talmudic stories. Hosted by the local community for Shabbat, they painstakingly worked on the synagogue ceiling week after week, completing it in 1729. Their biblical inscriptions and signatures remain a testament to their devotion and skill.
Collaboration across time and continents
Peretz said she first encountered the work of Israeli illustrator Boris Shapiro in 2001 at a Jewish Artists Exhibition in Beverly Hills, where she purchased two of his paintings. A year later, while staying at the King David Hotel with her husband and young daughter, she met Shapiro in person at the art gallery next to the hotel.
Born in 1968 in Lvov, then part of the Soviet Union, Shapiro immigrated to Israel in 1991 and pursued his art studies in Beersheva. A specialist in antique restoration and an admirer of Dutch master Pieter Bruegel, his paintings vividly depict 17th-century Jewish life with a touch of the fantastical. His solo exhibitions have spanned the globe, from Panama to Portugal.
The painstaking effort to reconstruct the Gwoździec Synagogue ceiling was captured in the award-winning documentary Raise the Roof, produced by Cary Wolinsky and directed by Yari Wolinsky.
The film follows the Browns and their team as they race against time to rebuild the lost masterpiece. Using historical photographs and fragments of documentation as their guide, they meticulously carved, painted, and assembled the ceiling’s intricate details, ensuring historical accuracy and reviving a lost artistic tradition.
Looking to the future
Peretz believes The Ceiling is more than just a book—it is an invitation to engage with Jewish history through art. “To answer the call to ‘engage in holy labor’ is to open floodgates of inspiration,” she says. By blending past and present, her project ensures that the vibrant legacy of the lost wooden synagogues will continue to inspire future generations, brought to life by Shapiro’s vivid illustrations.
A total of 1,000 copies were printed, with 200 available exclusively in Israel at ANU Museum. A donation of 180 shekels for the book supports efforts to share the story of Gwoździec online.
Meanwhile, the Gwoździec Yizkor Book, a 351-page memorial volume originally written in Yiddish, remains untranslated into English. It was translated into Hebrew in 1974 by Mendel Zilber in Ramat Gan. Recently, thanks to Ruby Landau-Pincus, Reference & Outreach Archivist at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, the book has been made available to the JewishGen Yizkor Project for translation.
This Yizkor Book offers a rich collection of first-person accounts detailing life in Gwoździec before, during, and after the Holocaust. It also includes a list of the town’s martyrs and stories about its famed synagogue.
For those eager to delve deeper, Handshouse Studio’s work on the Gwoździec Synagogue can be explored through its website, while Raise the Roof is available on Amazon Prime. Peretz, who has watched the documentary nearly 80 times, says she knows it by heart.
While The Ceiling may seem like a simple title, its story is anything but. The layers of history behind it span centuries, revealing an extraordinary network of people—many of them not Jewish—who have helped preserve the memory of lost Jewish communities and their synagogues.
Printed in Tel Aviv, the book also showcases the work of Israeli visual art designer Irit Harel, adding another international yet uniquely Israeli dimension to the project. Published independently by Wanda Peretz, its Israeli publicist is Stuart Schnee (www.stuartschnee.com).