[Avodah] Stained Glass Windows

[Joseph Kaplan]

R'YL asked:
> This morning someone told me that he had heard  that RYBS once
> spoke against installing stained glass windows in a synagogue,
> saying it was Chukas Ha Goyim. He said he had heard that RYBS
> went so far as to say that one should not go to a synagogue with
> stained glass windows to hear shofar.
>
> Can anyone verify this?

RAF responded: 

"It's a letter, printed in Community, Covenant and Conversation, of the
Meotzar haRav series, and it was about a non denominational chapel at
a prominent university (perhaps Columbia IIRC)."

The letter (which is the first entry in CC&C) deals with the question of "human images on stained glass windows"; not simply stained glass windows.  RYBS's recommendation was not to have any representation of human form.  Nothing is said about shofar.  BTW, the windows were to be placed in an interfaith chapel at Cornell.  RYBS, although not asked, was opposed to having an interfaith chapel.  He was 1 for 2; they built the chapel but the stained glass windows portrayed only natural scenes; there were no human figures.

Joseph Kaplan