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The design of the ark and surrounding ornaments at the United Synagogue of Hoboken are illustrative of a longstanding tradition dating from at least the latter part of the 3rd century.

So noted Jewish art expert and Bayonne native Vivian B. Mann, in her talk on "The Art in the Synagogue: from Antiquity until Today," at a Sunday brunch kicking off USH's second phase of the restoration of its 95-year-old building.

USH began life in 1915 as the Star of Israel, an Orthodox shul, but changed its name and affiliation -- to Conservative -- in 1947 under a merger agreement with the now-defunct Hoboken Jewish Center's more liberal congregation.

But for some changes to some of its decorative elements, Hoboken's single synagogue saw its infrastructure begin to weaken in recent years, so last year the USH leadership initiated the first phase of a capital plan focused on fixing the roof, re-wiring the building, installing new lighting, and cleaning and pointing the façade to uncover the original Star of Israel mosaic.

A grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust helped pay for the exterior work and pave the way for the building's placement on the National and State Registers of Historic Places in 2008.

Now the synagogue is preparing to tackle improvements to its sanctuary as the second phase of its restoration project.

To get a deeper appreciation of the historic context around the central part of the sanctuary -- the ark -- USH called upon Mann, the curator emerita of the Jewish Museum in New York and director of the master's program in Jewish Art at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

A newly elected Fellow of the American Academy of Jewish Research, Mann is a senior editor of Images: A Journal of Jewish Art and Visual Culture. Her book, "Uneasy Communion: Jews, Christians and Altarpieces in Medieval Spain," was published this year.

Mann said that of the world's monotheistic religions, Judaism was unique because it kept its sacred texts in the form of scrolls instead of books.

Through the centuries, the Five Books of Moses were eventually consolidated from five individual scrolls into one, Mann said. These scrolls, originally stored in ornamental stone cases, were later encased in arks in exterior walls of synagogues and were brought inside to be read, she said.

Ultimately, those arks -- and the scrolls inside them -- were incorporated as part of the sanctuary as we know it today, she said.

There was a longstanding tradition of European artisans decorating arks with images of animals such as lions facing each other -- which is the case at USH -- "as guardian figures," Mann said, and this motif began showing up in American synagogues toward the end of the 19th century, she said.

In the 1880s, for example, a Jewish cattleman designed an ark for a synagogue in Sioux City, S.D., with a decorative eagle above it and two lions on either side, Mann said. Mann said that the USH lions, however, are configured differently than their historical predecessors by having been placed higher on the ark wall and further away from the ark, thereby suggesting a modernist evolution.

The lions may have been popular in American arks for another reason, Mann suggested, since many of the late-19th century American artisans who designed them for synagogues also fashioned horse figures for carousels.

No revolving carousels are part of USH's future. Instead, says USH trustee and immediate past president Ken Schept, the synagogue has retained MLB Construction, of Hoboken, whose principals are Raul Menaris and USH member Harold Berlowe, as general contractor and Alex Gorlin, a New York architect, to carry out the sanctuary restoration project.

This summer, workers will re-plaster and paint the walls and stairwells leading from the lobby to the second-floor sanctuary and third-floor balcony; convert two former women's lounges into a teen lounge and an office for the head of the learning center, said Schept, who is coordinating the restoration.

"We're going to call in a specialist to restore the ark wall by stripping off many years' worth of lacquer and bringing it down to the original oak wood, and restore the artwork around the bimah," Schept said.

"Also, we'll fix the floors in sanctuary and balcony and re-sand and refinish as many of the 80 wood pews as possible," he said. "And in the rear of the balcony, there's an alcove -- the Garbade Room -- where we want to put in a new floor to unify the balcony."

If there's money left in the budget, the plan is to put new carpeting in the sanctuary, around the bimah, and on the stairway, and possibly install some historical light fixtures or reproductions, Schept said.

"If you add all this up, we'll probably need $250,000 to complete the project," he said.

USH members Lauren Calmus, Heidi Learner, and Talya Schaffer are co-chairing the capital fundraising effort, he said.

The Kaplan Family Foundation has donated $65,000 for part of the job; an additional $60,000 has been collected from congregants, including a $15,000 matching grant from the Mason family in recent weeks; and the balance needed should come from what's left in the capital campaign account, Schept said.

"We're well along to getting started with the work," he said.

Schept said "the plan is to start with the re-plastering by the end of May. We want to do the work over the summer when the level of activity at the synagogue is somewhat diminished, although we do have two bar mitzvahs scheduled for June 19 and Aug. 7, which we'll have to work around. The goal is to get it done by the High Holidays, which come early this year."

During the summer, Shabbat services will be held in the USH social hall, he said.

"We're looking into the possibility of putting in a few air-conditioning window units in the sanctuary as an experiment if it's not too costly," he said. "We're also investigating the possibility of getting a temporary air-conditioning system for the High Holidays."

Schept said the restoration reflects the synagogue's "success in revitalizing the Jewish community of Hoboken and Hudson County." USH counts 285 households as paid members, has enrolled more than 100 children in its Kaplan preschool, and has another 100 in its learning center, he said.