Obj. ID: 57591
Memorials Stained glass dedicated to Holocaust victims and survivors in Beth Shalom Synagogue in Columbia, SC, USA
To the main object: Beth Shalom Synagogue in Columbia, SC, USA
Name of Monument
Social hall door stained-glass panels
What/Who is commemorated?
Holocaust victims and survivors
Description
Two rectangular stained-glass windows are set into the doors of the social hall.
Inscriptions
Within the glass:
B-3348 [tattoo number on raised arm]
1939-1945 [in lower right corner]
Two small bronze plaques to the left of door:
STAINED GLASS PORTAL
IN LOVING MEMORY
OF OUR
BELOVED AUNT AND UNCLE
ROSE AND GABRIEL STERN
BY
JADZIA AND BEN STERN
1996 5756
STAINED GLASS PORTAL
IN LOVING MEMORY
OF OUR
BELOVED PARENTS
BY
JADZIA AND BEN STERN
1996 5756
Commissioned by
Jadzia and Ben Stern
sub-set tree: 
| Beth Shalom 5827 N Trenholm Rd, Columbia, SC 29206
A | Astronomy | Sun | Rays
T | Tablets of the Law
E | Eternal light (ner tamid)
M | Magen David
H | Human Figure | Hand
H | Holocaust | Concentration camp | Number tattoo
| clouds
The windows were commissioned by Holocaust survivors Ben and Jadzia Stern. Both were very active in the Columbia Jewish community, Holocaust education, and Ben served as president of Beth Shalom. While the windows serve as a remembrance of all victims of the Holocaust, the inclusion of an arm with Ben Stern’s Auschwitz tattoo number makes this a personal remembrance, too. Ben Stern died in 1999, and the window and subsequently the window has been considered a memorial to him and his wife Jadzia, who died in 2011.
Near the doors in the hallway in front of the social hall doors with the stained glass windows is a cabinet and display case with a “Holocaust Torah” on display along with other artifacts associated with the Holocaust.
Jewish Heritage Collection: Oral history interview with Ben Stern (Low Country Digital Library), https://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/lcdl:62121 (accessed July 17, 2025)
"Jewish Heritage Collection: Oral History Interview with Lilly Stern Filler", Low Country Digital Library (Feb. 18, 2016), https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn505544 (accessed July 17, 2025)
"Oral history interview with Jadzia Stern",U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (Sept. 5, 1991)