Eight feet wide. Masumi’s panorama of the Hebrew Garden is among her largest works, and the scale is not arbitrary. The Hebrew Garden is one of the most architecturally ambitious in Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens system—monumental sculpture, elaborate landscape design, a space that announces the Jewish community’s substantial presence in Cleveland’s civic and cultural life.

Jewish immigration to Cleveland began in the mid-nineteenth century with German Jews, then surged with the massive wave of Eastern European Jews fleeing pogroms between 1880 and 1920. By the time the Hebrew Garden was established in 1926, Jewish Clevelanders had built vibrant neighborhoods, institutions, and businesses spanning Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox traditions. The garden’s monumentality reflects this community’s confidence, its resources, and its commitment to visible civic presence.

The designation “Hebrew” rather than “Jewish” reflects the terminology of the era—a linguistic choice that reads differently now than it did in 1926. Like all the Cultural Gardens, this one carries its history in layers, the language of the past preserved even as meanings shift.

Masumi chose to conclude her Cultural Gardens trilogy here, with the most elaborate garden and her most ambitious format. The photo collage technique, assembling dozens of individual photographs into a single panoramic view, matches the garden’s own complexity—sculptural elements, landscape features, architectural details, all brought together into a unified composition that rewards sustained looking.