Vail Health Hospital chapel shares replica of Western Wall at open house Sunday

On Sunday, July 16, the Vail Health Foundation hosted an open house at the new prayer wall in the Frechette Chapel in Vail Health Hospital. The Frechette Chapel, which was unveiled in January 2023, is a multi-faith space of spiritual healing within the hospital. The new prayer wall is a replica of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, also known as the Kotel, an ancient religious site of healing.

At the Vail Health Hospital prayer wall, visitors can write prayers or hopeful thoughts on small pieces of paper and place them in cracks between the stones in the wall, just like at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The prayer wall provides the opportunity for silent, private reflection and prayer. As the cracks in the wall fill, the notes will be collected and saved. The notes will never be read, prayed over, or thrown away, but saved forever, in a geniza, or mausoleum specifically set aside in the Jewish part of the Minturn cemetery for this purpose.

The prayer wall in the Vail Health Hospital chapel is the only replica of the Western Wall to exist within a hospital chapel in the United States. The idea was the brainchild of Rabbi Joel D. Newman, of the B’nai Vail Congregation. When Vail Health Hospital officials approached local religious leaders with the plan to redo the hospital’s chapel, Newman envisioned the most powerful spiritual place of healing he could think of: Jerusalem’s Western Wall.

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With its ancient origins — the wall in Jerusalem was built in 19 B.C.E. under the rule of Roman Jewish King Herod — the wall holds deep spiritual significance within many religious traditions.

“I wanted a spiritual space in a hospital, where people really need somewhere to go. They need more than just a room, they need a connection to God. And this is about a close as you can come.” — Rabbi Joel D. Newman

“I wanted a spiritual space in a hospital, where people really need somewhere to go. They need more than just a room, they need a connection to God. And this is about a close as you can come,” Newman said.

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The wall was meticulously planned and constructed over the course of two years. The stones that make up the wall were extracted from the same quarry south of Jerusalem, and in the same traditional method, as the stones that make up the Western Wall. The bottom layer of the large stone blocks is from the period of King Herod, the middle layer is from the time of Islamic rule, and the top layer of the smallest stones is from the time of the Ottoman Empire, according to Newman.

The open house was punctuated by a rotating visual collection of photographs of the Western Wall in Jerusalem put together by Janet Newman, Rabbi Newman’s wife, that emphasized the spirituality of the wall. Visitors were struck by the uniqueness of the prayer wall.

“It’s really individualistic because almost every hospital has a quiet room, a meditation room, but not with those stones,” said David Barker, a retired plastic surgeon from Washington state. “That’s unique in the country, maybe in the world, but certainly in this country. I’ve been to a lot of hospitals and seen meditation rooms, but not like this.”

Many attendees of Sunday’s event were members of the B’nai Vail Congregation, and donors to the fundraiser to create the prayer wall in Vail.

“I’m just appreciative for the community joining in — and this was the Jewish community — so this was a gift from B’nai Vail and the Jewish community for the hospital and the town of Vail, or Eagle County, and it’s forever — that’s what makes it so special,” Newman said.

Despite its Jewish origins, Newman intends to designate the chapel as a space of inclusion for people of all faiths. To accompany the prayer wall, Newman specifically designed a healing prayer book that can be a spiritual guide for people of many faiths. In addition to Jewish prayers, the book contains religious words of healing from the Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, and Baha’i traditions.

“If someone comes in, there’s prayers for healing of that particular faith they go to (in the prayerbook), and they know what to say. Some people don’t know what to do, especially when you’re under such duress, of a surgery or even a loss,” Newman said. The chapel also houses traditional prayer books from several religions.

The chapel is open 24 hours per day, and will soon have chairs for seated reflection and prayer. Visitors to the chapel will always have the opportunity to write and place a note in the wall, and to consult with the various prayerbooks and pamphlets provided.

“Some people, as they know about it or learn about it, come before surgery, or after, in wheelchairs,” Newman said. “And certainly, when there’s family members that are waiting, it’s a good waiting room.”

Going forward, Newman envisions the space as an opportunity for deep religious connection for everyone who visits the chapel.

“I would hope more people would come, not just because they’re in the hospital, but they’re visiting Vail,” Newman said. “You can go to the top of the mountain and sit on the wedding deck, and that’s a spiritual moment, but this is such a connection to the temple from 2,000 years ago, of King Solomon.”