A Kotel That’s Being Built in Kawkawlin

KAWKAWLIN, MI — In a shop just off M-13, in a small township called Kawkawlin Township, Michigan, a team of six artists has worked for the past month to recreate an ancient and significant piece of history now on its way to Crown Heights.

Come June, visitors to the Jewish Children’s Museum in Brooklyn will be able to see the 24-by-11-foot replica of Jerusalem’s Western Wall — also known as the Wailing Wall — built by Niche Design of Bay City.

“This is one of the big ones,” said Martin Roznowski of Niche Design, who led the construction effort. “To be able to work on something this prestigious … I’m very proud.”

The real wall has stood in Jerusalem since 19 B.C., when King Herod expanded the area around the Temple Mount. The Western Wall is the last remaining wall of the site and is considered among the holiest locations in Judaism.

Roznowski and his team members put the finishing touches on the replica wall Tuesday in a space lent to the firm by Holsinger Manufacturing, 2922 S. Huron Road in Kawkawlin. The wall then was disassembled, packed up and shipped out.

Roznowski, a Bay City resident, and two other team members are heading to New York, where the wall will be unveiled to museum staff Friday.

“We expect that visitors who have been to Israel will be very excited about this exhibit,” said Goldy Cohen, program director at the Jewish Children’s Museum. “The wall is a huge part of those visits. It’s the main site in the Holy Land for believers, so we thought it deserved something pretty significant in this exhibit.”

The wall will make its home on the fourth floor of the museum in an area titled “The Story of the Jewish People.” It will join existing exhibits on the Holocaust, the Land of Israel and Mount Sinai.

Niche Design was contracted for the project by Work With Your Brain, a Brooklyn-based design firm. The two companies have worked together on previous projects.

“I have very high standards, and so does Marty,” said Steve Samuels, founder and president of Work With Your Brain. “We knew that the team has the skills to pull off the realism, the detail that we were looking for given the importance of the subject.”

Neither party would reveal the cost of the project. Roznowski said it is typical for museums to travel around the country to check out potential design firms for the creation of exhibits.

“They’re really looking for the craftsmen to do their projects based on talent, not proximity,” he said. “We were a good fit for this one.”

Roznowski said he developed his love of art early in life at his father’s screenprinting business. He followed that passion to Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, where he majored in illustration.

With an extensive career in scenic design for museums and movie sets, Roznowski said the wall project incorporated a variety of skills.

“This type of project entails so many different craftsmen — from woodworkers to scenic design to moving parts specialists — it encompassed all the trades that we could bring together.”

Roznowski’s team began with foam blocks that were carved into the basic shape of the wall, covered with a special tinted cement and painted.

“We probably have five real paint colors on the wall, but they have been mixed together and layered,” he said. “We moved from darks to lights to glazes to get just the right shades.”

To ensure the replica wall was accurate, Roznowski’s team referred to photographs of the real wall.

The team also created a number of smaller, moving displays that will be part of the exhibit, including a wheat and barley grinder, dough platter and word games.

Samuels said based on photos he’s seen of the replica, it is exactly what he was looking for. He said his firm has been working with the Jewish Children’s Museum since it opened in 2004.

“The concept behind the museum is to help with tolerance and understanding between people,” said Samuels.

Samuels said the exhibit will feature five televisions, built into the wall, that will broadcast live images of the Western Wall, as well as video and still shots, all set to its own soundtrack.

Visitors will be invited to write prayers on slips of paper to put in the cracks of the replica, just as Jewish people have done for centuries at the real wall. Samuels said the museum is contemplating mailing the prayers left at the replica to Israel on a frequent basis.

“I think that would be really neat,” he said.

Roznowski said it was difficult to see the replica wall taken down and shipped to New York City so quickly after his team finished its work.

“The painting went so quick, and there has been so much put into it, so much emotion … it’s kind of hard to see it go,” he said Tuesday.

Still, he knows it will have significant meaning to those who see it.

“So many people are going to see this, touch this. I’m very proud.”