Currently located in the Scheuer Chapel, this Aron HaKodesh, Holy Ark, is originally from the small town of Trzcianka (in German Schönlanke ), outside of Posen in Poland. There, it resided in the local Beit HaMidrash, house of study, known as the Chevre-shul, which was established in the late eighteenth century (no later than 1772) and financed by Jacob Moses (1724-1802). This space was a shared one — between those studying in the Chevre-shul and the town synagogue. By 1869, the Chevre-shul moved — along with it many ritual items — and, by 1882, the old synagogue had been torn down and replaced with a with “modern” one. After the Beit Midrash closed in 1897, the ark was perceived as a relic of a bygone era, and was taken in by collector Salli Kirschstein — whose Collection of European Judaica would be acquired for the Hebrew Union College by librarian Adolph Oko in the 1920s.