Art: Hear, O Israel . . .

Never before had the workmen at Barillet's—the leading stained-glass studio of Paris—known anyone quite like the intense, wild-haired American artist who had come to them in 1958. Abraham Rattner, 65, was embarked on the most ambitious project of his life, and he seemed unable to tear himself away from it for a minute. He pored over Jewish holy books for inspiration, spent each day at Barillet's rejecting and selecting pieces of glass, watching every move the artisans made as they went about their centuries-old task. The result was worth the effort: a majestic stained-glass window that is to be dedicated after...