Source: The Barnstable Patriot
http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/home2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18192&Itemid=30
This evening at the Cape Cod Synagogue’s 8 o’clock Shabbat service, members will dedicate a beautiful new worship space, and celebrate a renewal of purpose as a religious community dwelling on this slim spit of sand.
“We’ll be hanging a mezuzah, and the Torah scrolls will be brought in to take up residence,” said Rabbi David Freelund, standing before the bimah, the raised area from which services are led. “We’ll be honoring those who helped [with the project]. There will be lots of music. It’s going to be great.“
Dominating the space behind Freelund, is the centerpiece of the synagogue’s ongoing renovation – a 60’x12’ Jerusalem stone wall. Lit from above, the wall’s roughly cut limestone blocks, golden white with hints of pink, seem to glow. The appearance of the dry fit construction method used to build the wall in Hyannis looks much like that used in Jerusalem for thousands of years.
The stone was imported from Jerusalem, and is the same stone used in construction of buildings in and around the city. Like the Cape, Freelund explained with a smile, the ancient city, home to the world’s three major monotheistic religions, has an historical commission “a lot like Route 6A does.” The committee oversees all construction in the city to preserve its historic nature, hence, just as structures here must be finished with wooden shingles or clapboards, buildings there must be constructed of Jerusalem stone.
“After a congregational trip to Israel in 2006, Lee Michelove, a member and a part of the renovation committee, made the suggestion of the stone. As soon as he said it, I knew it was the right way to go,” Freelund said. “It connects us to the land of Israel and the Rock of Israel.”