 Good afternoon. I'm Jeff Potash, Adling Cunin, Aaron Goldberg. Welcome to those in attendance here and on Facebook as we come together as one community to share enjoy and celebration. 112 years ago in 1910 a 24-year-old painter from Covna, Lithuania, Benzium Black painted a wall mural on Hyde Street in the centuries-old tradition which then proliferated in hundreds if not thousands of synagogues throughout Eastern Europe. Now in 2022 we all stand together about to enter the 10th of the Tabernacle marking a miraculous convergence of art history and memory. It has been 36 years since we embarked on the mission to save the lost mural. Jeff and I were fortunate then to enlist the help of architect Marcel Boden and then Shelburne Museum curator Richard Kirchner. An audacious plan was designed by Marcel to surgically extract and relocate our community's massive yet fragile plaster mural to a new public home. All we could do then in 1986 was to seal the mural behind a false wall and be patient and have faith. Almost three decades later on May 6, 2015, with your generous support and that of hundreds in our community and far beyond, our vision was then realized to save the mural. George Orwell wrote, the most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their own history. It is our fervent hope that the lost mural will continue to shine as a symbol of our community's history and a legacy of all immigrant groups who have contributed and who shape and continue to shape Burlington's identity. We have so many people to thank today and we're so happy to be sharing this event with you. To the Oppenhardt's family whose donation to the mural made everything else possible, to all of the contractors and subcontractors compromising our lost mural rescue and moving crews, our marvelous team of conservators, our individual family business and foundation donors, we simply offer our heartfelt appreciation. So too, we are grateful to several leaders of statewide organizations who have been unparalleled advocates and financial supporters of the lost mural project over the past two years and who have joined us today. Dan Smith of the Vermont Community Foundation, Stephen Perkins of the Vermont Historical Society, Karen Middlemann of the Vermont Council on the Arts and Ben Doyle from Preservation Trust of Vermont. Thank you to Chris Kaufman-Ilsstrup and Vermont Humanities, the National Life Group and North Country Federal Credit Union for their support of today's Rebel and Reveal event and our accompanying educational program and materials. We greatly appreciate Paul Giddison, Max Barron and Raul Guevara for their combined efforts to produce today's event for the audience here and for those online. Much appreciation for Cobylin Brownell for the wonderful multimedia montage he created for today's event. This medium will be uploaded to our website page and will be integrated as part of our educational initiative and exhibit as the lost mural project moves forward. And to our lost mural board members, many thanks for surviving the endless barrage of emails and exhausting meetings to help us to reach this milestone together today. And finally, to our respective families, thank you for all of your enduring love and support. This celebration is all about preserving a work that we have characterized as, quote, an international treasure in Vermont, unquote. The work that we have done will long endure. What this community has successfully accomplished together preserves a cherished art form that immigrants to Vermont carried with them as they thought to bridge from the old to the new world. Moreover, the work by the lost mural project conservators dramatically reveals the unique vision of an immigrant artist for whom the biblical imagery was transformed into a message of welcoming and inclusivity. While many of us have diligently worked to draw attention to the lost mural and to raise the required funds to rescue, move and restore it, our success in fundraising over the past decade is largely the result of the dedication of our leader and long term, long time chair of the Friends of the Mural Board, Madeline Mae Cunan. When asked to describe what the lost mural means to her, Madeline has suggested it is a symbol of hope over despair and freedom over oppression. As a transplanted immigrant to Vermont and Holocaust refugee, Madeline is our inspiration. Her own lifetime of action, commitment to her community and to all Vermonters is one of finding her own voice and empowering others to speak up. In many ways, her efforts in helping us and the lost mural find its voice through the reveal of its original 1910 colors, which you are about to see, exemplify her dedication and commitment. And for that, we are extraordinarily grateful. It is a privilege. It is a pleasure to introduce the honorable Madeline Mae Cunan. I'm just one of the people who made today possible, but it's great to see you all and it's great that we can now celebrate the completion of the mural and we can be thankful that it has survived. And I thank each and every one of you for having made contributions to our work. And so everyone who is seated at tables here this afternoon deserves a thank you because it wouldn't have happened if we hadn't been able to raise the funds to move the mural from its location in a former, well it is an apartment building, and you had to climb up some stairs to get a view and here it is available to everyone. Later this afternoon the public will be invited. So this is not just a mural of Jewish history, it is also a mural of the immigrant story that the painting is a symbol of survival. And when you get a chance to see it, which will be shortly, you may feel something special. For me, it also has spiritual quality, something about the colors, the depiction, the work that gives us a link to the Jews who immigrated here in the 18, 1900s. And it's a link with the past, but it is also a message for the future because we now can enjoy it in our time in our own way. So the mural was once lost, we could say confidently it has been found. It has been found by all of you who are here today. So I thank you for your thanks, if that's not redundant. And I thank everyone who worked so hard, especially Aaron and Jeff. This would have been hidden, it would have been lost if it were not for Aaron. So enjoy today, enjoy the celebration. God knows we need something joyful in the hard times we are experiencing. So have a good time and be grateful that the mural has been found. Thank you. It's in here. We're just rearranging. Well, part of my program on the agenda is to thank and recognize Aaron Boberg and Jeff Hollash for their pioneering work and for their faith in believing that this community could gather together to recognize and to revitalize a mural that was stored against a wall in the Department building that they could be moved to a public place and it could be brought back to its original music, original shape. I wrote this a couple of weeks ago, so I don't think I can improve on it by my own editing. So I'm trying to get into the light. What a joy it is for us to get together for a celebration to mark the completion of the once lost and now farmed and ago mural. Many people made this day possible with time, effort and money. But none of us would be sitting here today with smiles on our faces if it were not for two people who had the dream and believed in that dream so strongly that they were able to turn the dream into reality. I can see that some of you already know who I'm talking about, especially after I mentioned this because you were with the huge undertaking from the start. On this occasion, everyone must know the names of Aaron Goldberg and Jeff Pallas. He discovered the mural on a wall in an old synagogue that was converted into an apartment building on Hyde Street. If someone wanted to see the beautiful mural she or he had to climb some rickety stairs and get a glance at two lions and a tour. The figures were recognizable despite the many pockmarked and white empty spaces in the mural. These two men worked together at a process we thought only God could create resurrection. Aaron insisted that the mural should be given new life by transforming it from deterioration to restoration. He decided that the mural be given new life by moving it from its hiding place in the apartment building to a current house of worship. Oh, how he said it was not easy, but perseverance triumph. We the greater community are so grateful to your faith and the beauty and spiritual power of the now that is restored to its full splendor. The synagogue mural is a great gift to Vermont and beyond. Thank you. Thank you, Aaron and Jeff. And the whole community wants to say thank you to you. I'm also the guy that keeps time. And now what we'd like to do is to share two tributes from the national and state communities. We'll begin with a video tribute from Joshua Perlman. My name is Josh Perlman, and I am the chief curator and director of exhibitions and interpretation at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although I couldn't be there with you in person to celebrate this magnificent occasion, I very much wanted to send my regards and my congratulations to everybody who is there for the unveiling and the revealing of the lost mural. At my museum, we celebrate the stories of American Jews from 1654 until the present day. And there is nothing more remarkable than a unique story that connects our American history, our American Jewish history to the histories of Jews across time and across space. The lost mural by Benzion Black is a unique work of art, something nearly unseen in American synagogues. And nevertheless, it connects us to a lost world, a world of European synagogues, which flourished with these types of artworks. Benzion Black's mural is both a religious artifact, as well as an artistic statement. It is a connection between European heritage and our American stories. And it is a connection between the world of European art and the world of American art of the early 20th century. Over a century ago, Benzion Black created this mural, never knowing what its future will be. And in fact, its future was almost imperiled, had it not been for Aaron Goldberg and Jeff Potash. They took the initiative to recognize the remarkableness of Black's mural. They convened a community and energized people in Burlington across the state of Vermont and across the country to become engaged with the mural and the project to save it. I am almost reminded actually of last week's Torah portion, which was about the scouts who went into the land of Canaan, looking to see if the Israelites could enter that land. As you may know from this story, most of those scouts came back and said, it cannot be done. But two, Caleb and my name's sake Joshua came back and said, yes, we can do this. And Aaron and Jeff said, yes, we can do this. So my hearty congratulations to them. My hearty congratulations to the Honorable Malin May Cunin and my hearty congratulations to the entire Vermont community. For it is like Hanukkah in some sense, that we might not have known, might not have predicted that something so beautiful could have such a future. And yet almost as by miracle, it has been preserved. It has been protected. It has been loved. And today, on this occasion, it is revealed, not only for the community of Burlington, Vermont, but our entire country. And I look forward to visiting the mural again. And I look forward to its bright, magnificent future. Thank you, Josh. Next, I'd like to ask Karen Middlemann to speak on behalf of the Vermont arts community. Thank you, Jeff. I'm honored to be here. And I was honored to be invited in 2019 to participate in a strategic planning meeting to envision what might be the future for the lost mural. Our group came together and we considered whether this century old artifact from another time, and another era of Vermont history could be seen as a work of art that could speak with relevance and resonance to today. And we discussed many exciting possibilities, finding a way to use the story of the mural to give Vermonters a window into our state's rich and diverse religious history and our diverse immigrant past, interpreting it in the context of Eastern European synagogue architecture and Jewish communal life. Or as an extraordinary example of Eastern European folk art, illuminating the multi ethnic history of Burlington's little Jerusalem, which so few Vermonters and so few visitors to our state are even aware of. As Ben Doyle points out in the quote in your program, this mural helps us to understand that Vermont's immigrant past and Vermont's identity is dynamic and diverse. Our group talked about the challenge of interpreting, incorporating the mural story into Vermont's brand new ethnic and social equity curriculum standards. And the ways that it stands as an emblem of cultural survival and much more. I know that all of those exciting possibilities for interpreting and sharing the story of the mural are still being explored. And each one deserves its moment and its time. But what I am so struck by tonight is the beauty and the power of the mural as a cultural artifact. Before I came to Vermont, I spent many years as a museum curator, including a stint at Josh's Museum in Philadelphia. And I was often frustrated by the how mute an object is once you put it in a case in a museum. So picture a pair of brass candlesticks that were brought to this country by a Jewish immigrant. I know many of you might have one a set in your home. When I see those brass candlesticks behind plexiglass in a museum, they need no interpretation. I don't need to read the label. They speak to me immediately, because I can see my grandmother lighting the chavis candles in her dining room. I can see the flickering light of the candles. I can hear my voice reciting the breath of and I can almost feel that hush of peace that descended on the on the entire household. But those candles only speak to me because of my history and because of that context. Take away that history, take away that context, and they're just a pair of candlesticks behind plexiglass in the museum. That to me is the challenge and the enormous possibility of interpreting the lost mural for Vermonters and for a broader audience. It's so important and so vital, perhaps now more than ever, for each of us to be able to understand how someone different from us experiences the world. To be able to imagine how a pair of candlesticks or a Torah scroll or a set of rosary beads or a holy Quran or a synagogue mural, what it means and what it has meant to people whose lives are vastly different than our own. The lost mural potentially has that magic. When you stand in front of it, or you stand under it and look up, you can feel an entire social, cultural and spiritual world unfold. It has that power to speak and to tell multiple stories. That is so rare and so precious. I'm proud that the Vermont Arts Council could play a small part in preserving and documenting this rare cultural treasure of Vermont's past. I know that all of you in this room are as moved and inspired as I am by the heroic work of the Friends of the Lost Mural led by Governor Coonan to restore it and to preserve its history. And I look forward, as I know all of you do, to seeing all of the murals' many stories unfold. Thank you. Thank you, Karen. We are delighted now to hear from our National Congregational, very good, Congressional President of the synagogue, National Congressional delegation. And it is a true pleasure to begin by introducing Congressman Peter Welch. I'm thrilled to be here. It's pretty special to be invited by a community that has undertaken this extraordinarily ambitious project and to be welcomed into an intimate setting with you. And I just want to express how much of a thrill it is that I'll be able to go home, talk to my kids, tell Margaret where I was, who I was with in this extraordinary event that we're all celebrating today. A second, you know, I'm thinking about this, we're going to see a work of art and we'll have our interpretations of it. But what's extraordinary to me, and this isn't what I think so many of us admire the Jewish people about. It's really an embrace of the tradition of struggle, the tradition of effort, the tradition of solidarity. And understanding that in order for us to cope with today's challenges. And there are many special challenges that the Jewish community has to contend with. We need not just to reach back because it reminds us, we reach back because it gives us strength. We need that strength to maintain those values in the face of the challenges of today. And to be able to go back over a hundred years and think about what Karen was talking about, everything that went into the artist's presentation. And what informed him, what experiences not only he had, but his parents, his grandparents and his great-grandparents. It's all there. And what I find inspiring about this undertaking is there was no reason really to do it, right? It was out of sight, it was out of mind. But there really was a reason to do it. And it was as Madeline said, there was a spiritual element here. And so much of life is about that spirit that is within us. And where we get the strength to sustain the struggle is by remembering that there were folks before us who maintained that struggle. And the way they lived, and even as they suffered every single day, every single step they took was about farming the value and dignity of their life and their fellow Jews. And the struggle will continue. So I just want to express to you my gratitude about being invited in what is just such a wonderful achievement, such an intimate event, an intimate event. And I applaud all of you for your success of today. Thank you. Thank you so much, Congressman Welch. And now I'd like to call upon Catherine Becker Van Haste, who represents Senator Bernie Sanders at this event. Thank you for having me here today. On behalf of Senator Sanders, four is he was known in 1986 when this all began, Mayor Sanders, but obviously always Bernie to Vermonters. You know, when Senator Sanders was mayor of Burlington, one of the things that he, along with Jane and so many who worked in his mayor's office did was put a focus on the arts. And that is because in his mind, and I think for so many of us, art plays a tremendously important role in our lives. Art is history, art is community, art is also organizing and a way of expressing ourselves. And so as I stand here, the daughter of Jewish, granddaughter of Jewish immigrants, who came here without art, without books, without family heirlooms and traditions, because they came with what they could wear and what they could carry. I'm particularly struck by the value of this mural, the significance that it has culturally and for the community and the history that it brings. And I think that's incredibly special. But one of the other things is I sat here listening to all the amazing speakers we've had today is some of the words that have been used and how timely they are. We've talked about patience and faith. We've talked about this mural, having a meaning of welcoming and inclusivity, being a symbol of survival and bringing people together. And so that for me, while I'm sure the folks who were involved in this project in 1986 didn't necessarily want to wait 36 years to get here today. I think the timing is just a little bit of a shirt. And now it's a pleasure to introduce Michelle Monroe, who will represent Senator Patrick Leahy. Thank you all. It's a pleasure to be here today on behalf of December. He is traveling with family. And but before he departed on his trip, he entered a statement into the congressional record about the lost mural. And I'm going to read that statement. And then I have copies of it to present to some of those here today. The statement, Mr. President, I am proud to recognize the Ohavi Zedek community and former Vermont Governor and US Ambassador to Switzerland, Madeline Hewnan, for their efforts to preserve and restore the Shoal mural painted in 1910 by Benzian Black. The mural was commissioned by Burlington's Lithuanian Jewish community who had come to Vermont from the town of Kovna to escape Russian pogroms. The immigrants founded the Ohavi Zedek synagogue in 1885 and High Adam synagogue four years later. It was at the latter synagogue that the Shoal mural was painted. Stretching from floor to ceiling, it depicts the tent of the Tabernacles, as it is described in the book of numbers. The style in which it was painted was well known to the members of High Adam, I apologize, as it could be found in synagogues throughout Eastern Europe. Now the Shoal mural is one of the few remaining examples of this style of painting in the world. The works which inspired it were destroyed during the burning of synagogues and the extermination of millions of Eastern European Jews by the Nazis, including the decimation of Lithuanian Jewish population. In Burlington, the Ohavi Zedek and High Adam synagogues merged in 1939. High Adam was sold. The building went through multiple uses and in 1986, the mural was covered with a false wall to protect it at the urging of Jeffrey Potash, a historian in Ohavi Zedek's archivist. In 2012, the building was sold once again. The new owner agreed to donate the mural to Ohavi Zedek and efforts began to move the mural, a massive project that was successfully completed in 2015. Since then, work has been underway to restore painting. The relocation and restoration of the mural were significant undertaking with costs exceeding $1 million. The funding came from foundations, historic preservation groups, arts organizations and individuals. Governor Cunin, herself a Jewish immigrant, lent her leadership skills to the effort, tearing the friends of the mural board. Governor Cunin's parents were German Jews who fled to Switzerland where her father died. Her mother brought Madeline and her brother Edgar to the United States to escape the Nazis when Madeline was six years old in Edgar X. Although her immediate family survived the Holocaust, Governor Cunin lost extended family in the concentration camps. She was fond of saying both she and the mural are survivors. Despite having arrived in the United States at a time of rising nativism, racism and antisemitism, the families which fled Kovna continued to encourage their former neighbors to follow them. At its peak, the community had more than a thousand members in Burlington. That community produced leaders in a number of fields, including Robert Larner, a physician who treated soldiers like Guadalcanal in Okinawa and for whom Vermont's only medical school is now named, and Ed Coladney, the former CEO of US Air. While the story of Burlington's Lithuanian Jewish community is unique, it is also a perfect example of what immigrants have brought and continued to bring to the United States. They enrich our country and society by sharing their art, their culture and their experience. The story of the Shull mural, the people who commissioned and created it and those who have insured its preservation for future generations, is a Jewish story, an immigrant story, and a quintessentially American story. And I have copies of that statement for you, Mr. Podash, for the synagogue. And as well for you, Governor Thieler. Thank you so much, Michelle. Before Senator Leahy went on vacation, he was good enough to prepare a video for us? I am at Small Park today for the unveiling of this beautiful mural. More precious than the mural itself, though, is what it represents. Survival, faith, and community. Constructed during Moses' time to house the Holy of Holies the 10th of the Tabernacle was portable. Something Israelites could take with them as they fled slavery and Egypt. It is easy to see why those who fled persecution and worship and control in Lithuania would choose to have an image of the 10th of the Tabernacle painted in the blood of the house of worship. The founders of a hobby, Zedek and High Adam, arrived in this country at a time of rising activism, racism, and anti-Semitism. But they stayed. We encouraged the former neighbors in Kovner to come here as well. The story of Governor Keenan's family is similar. Her mother brought her and her brother to the United States when they were children to escape the Nazis. And Melvin's contributions and service to Vermont in the country of Well-known, from then the first dean on the first Jewish governor of Vermont to something as a deputy secretary of education and then ambassador to Switzerland. Following that, her post-government teaching and volunteer work in activism. Her brother-in-law also knew well and could make part of a similar path of service as opposed to prize-winning journalists and public civil. We have a moral obligation to welcome immigrants, especially those playing violence. As the story of this mural and the accomplishments of the May siblings demonstrate, we all benefit. We open our shores and our arms. Immigrants in Wichita communities are sharing their culture and their history and their experience, just as your community has pushed us all about preserving and sharing this remarkable work of art and all that it represents. So, myself and I join all Vermonters in thanking you for that work. Now, as we come to the conclusion of our program, apparently we're supposed to offer a toast for our shared achievement, Aaron Madlin. It's an incredible achievement that we all share. On behalf of Madlin and Aaron, a toast to all of you and to the mural. A toast to the kind which means to life, we're so thankful that all of you have the last mural brought back to life and wish all of you good health and long life. What I'd ask everyone to do, please, is if you would remain in your seats while Madlin, Aaron, and I are going to make our way to the lobby. Those of you who are familiar with the lobby know that it is small. We will be joined by Rick Kirschner, Janie Cohen, and Ray O'Connor, and we'd ask you to watch and Marcel Bowden, excuse me, to Marcel, for whom this would not have happened without Marcel, and he knows it. But I want you to watch on the screen as we ceremonially pull down and expose the mural. And afterward, I'd invite you to come join us and to see it for yourself. In the meantime, while we get there, there is wine, there is stuff to drink, and eat, enjoy. We'll see you from the lobby momentarily. Four, three, two, one.