Saturday, June 6, 1998

'See-through' wall is invented for Jewish services

By PATRICIA RICE / St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS -- It allows women at an Orthodox synagogue to watch Torah readings and Bar Mitzvahs.

A Washington University mechanical engineering professor used optical illusion to invent a wall system that allows Orthodox Jewish women a full view of their religious services.

Strict Jewish law forbids men from seeing women during services. Women can distract men from prayer, rabbis say.

So, a wall -- a mechitza -- separates the men and women at most Orthodox synagogues. Women can hear the Torah reading, but not see the readers.

However, Jewish law doesn't forbid the women from seeing the men. That opened the door to inventors to solve the problem.

The journey hasn't been easy.

But at his recent Bar Mitzvah, Moshe Franklin, 13,clearly enunciated every Hebrew word in his Torah reading. And his mother, grandmother, aunts and female cousins could see as well as hear him from their red chairs in the women's section in the sanctuary at Young Israel Synagogue in University City. They saw the men's section clearly through the new wall system.

"It was wonderful to be able to see my son," said his mother, Shirley Franklin, who has helped Moshe with his Hebrew home work since he was six. Their synagogue was the first in the country to install inventor-professor Richard L. Axelbaum's one-way optic wall.

Women at Young Israel stress that the new wall system is important at Saturday services -- not just for Bar Mitzvah mothers.

"Now, when we walk into the women's section, we feel we are walking into the whole shul (synagogue) not a smaller women's area," said Betsy Zimbalist, a Young Israel member for the past30 years. "Rich's invention gives the women great pleasure."

Conservative and Reform congregations don't separate men and women in their services.

Young Israel has grown to 182 families since it opened the new building four years ago.

Many of the new members were raised as Conservative or Reform Jews in synagogues with no wall separating men and women.

Both the men and women sections can view the rabbi who presides in front of the men's section because he stands on the bima -a raised platform at the far east end of the sanctuary. Menread the Torah scriptures on the schulcan, a platform in the middle of the rows of men's red chairs.

In European synagogues, women sit in a balcony where they can see all but not be seen by the men. However, the four-year old Young Israel building, like many American Orthodox Jewish synagogues, place men and women's sections parallel on the same floor.

That was the problem that confronted Axelbaum, an associate professor of mechanical engineering in the Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science. He grew up in St. Louis in the Conservative stream of Judaism and later attended services in a Reform congregation.

He understood some women's lament that they couldn't see scripture reading from their section. He was particularly moved by a woman with a hearing impairment who couldn't hear the scripture readings, nor see to read lips.

His congregation does not use microphones at services since Orthodox Jews do not use electricity on the Sabbath.

Some synagogues have tried using one-way mirrors. But men are distracted when they see their own image in the mirror, the professor said.

While attending a daily service at a Boston Orthodox synagogue, Axelbaum thought he saw a one-way mirror used at an angle.

"I was mistaken but that gave me the idea of using a mirror at an angle," he said.

The professor made some trial sketches before having R'ay Products in Olivette manufacture his design. The company built a 5-foot high, oak-stained wall divider with a "shadow box" at its top. White patterned wallpaper lines the inside top of the shadow box.

A one-way mirror inside the shadow box is angled at 45-degrees. It slants with the mirror side facing the men.

Axelbaum lined the bottom of the shadow box with black velvet. Men see what appears to be the white-patterned wallpaper.

"It is an optical illusion, the men are not aware of exactly what they are seeing," he said.

Women look through the back of the one-way mirror and clearly see the raised Torah reading platform in the synagogue's men's section.

His friend with limited hearing now feels she can fully participate in the service.

Axelbaum is overseeing a second wall system for Bais Menachem Synagogue. Nusach Hari-B'nai Zion Congregation is one of several other Orthodox synagogues who have voted to consider new walls.

"It can have lots of applications," he said

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)