In 1962 a deluxe book on the making of the "Jerusalem Windows" was published by Andre Sauret. Under Chagall's supervision, Charles Sorlier produced twelve 20-color stone lithographs for the series. These were based on Chagall's final models for the stained glass windows he had designed for The Synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center. Published by Andre Sauret, Monte Carlo. Printed by the renowned French printer Mourlot.
The "Jerusalem Windows" lithographs, like the windows, represent the twelve sons of the Patriarch Jacob, from whom came the Twelve tribes of Israel. Chagall's images are populated by floating figures of animals, flowers, fish, and numerous Jewish symols. To fully understand the significance of this series, they must be viewed under Chagall's deep sense of identification with the whole of the Jewish history, its tragedies and victories, as well as his own personal background in the village of Vitebsk, where he was born and grew up. "All the time I was working, I felt my father and my mother were looking over my shoulder, and behind them were Jews, millions of other vanished Jews of yesterday and a thousand years ago." But it was the Bible that provided his main inspiration, particularly Genesis 49, where Jacob blesses his 12 sons, and Deuteronomy 33, where Moses blesses the Twelve Tribes. The dominant colors used in each lithograph are inspired by those blessings as well as by the description of the breastplate of the High Priest in Exodus 28:15, which was colored gold, blue, scarlet, and purple, and contained 12 gems including turquoise, emeralds, sapphires and lapis lazuli.
