By james art 
It was painful for the members of the Jewish Temple and Center to see their synagogue burn in the fire of Ethan. The roof and walls where so many families had gathered for prayers, songs, weddings, memorials and celebrations had crumbled into ruins.
But something extraordinary was also revealed: a fresco, weak, aged and slightly burnt, which was hidden by a wall that burned down.
The mural shows what appears to be the artist’s imagination of life centuries past. Several people play the flute. Someone pours something into a bowl. There is a bull, a donkey, a palm tree and perhaps a cat, with men and women in long robes. There is a child held in the mother’s arms.
“At first I thought it was a biblical scene,” Christine Garroway, who is a member of the Congregation and a professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College, told us.
“I started going through the Hebrew Bible in my head. I believe now the mural can be a compilation to show different moments of the Israelites wandering in the desert.”
Professor Garroway’s teenage sons were playing basketball in the center’s gym the night before it burned; Her youngest will be 13 and bar mitzvah later this year. She is not sure where they will have the ceremony.
The rabbi and staff saved their 13 synagogues from burning and vowed to rebuild their temple for the community that has gathered there for a century. But how many members who lost their homes nearby will have to relocate?
Professor Garroway and other congregants try to learn more about how the mural was painted, in a building that was a roadhouse and warehouse in the 1920s. It could have been to decorate a restaurant, for some religious mission or just a rest stop.
“But seeing the mural is a real miracle,” says Christine Garroway. “It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t painted for the synagogue or that it was probably composed of a biblical moment. What matters is that the scene shows life in abundance: adults, children, food, drink and music. This scene rises above the ashes.”
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