Over the course of several months in early 2016, the staff at Etz Hayyim prepared an exhibition about Nikos Stavroulakis (an academic, art historian, writer, painter and printer) and his rebuilding and revival of the synagogue entitled Etz Hayyim: 20 Year Commemoration of the Reconstruction 1996 – 1999. The exhibition marked the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the synagogue’s reconstruction and was officially opened on 14 June 2016 in the exhibition space above the administrative office. The staff felt it important to honour Nikos’ initiative by presenting nine individual information panels that highlight the step-by- step process of the renovation project, but told in Nikos’ own words and with personal quotes and photographs to accompany the text.
This narrative is routinely explained by our staff members to Etz Hayyim’s many visitors because the story of the synagogue’s reconstruction and of Nikos are mutually intertwined. Yet, the exhibition has so far allowed visitors to fully appreciate Nikos’ initiative in undertaking this important project, together with his lasting vision for Etz Hayyim as an all-inclusive place of prayer, recollection and reconciliation, with the use of carefully selected photos of the ruined and abandoned synagogue as it stood for fifty years from 1944 to the mid-1990s.
This exhibition is open to the public during the synagogue’s opening hours.