David Hillman was born into a Jewish family in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (now Latvia), in 1894. He moved with his family to Glasgow, Scotland in 1908 where he began his art education. Hillman later relocated to London where he was a rabbi and a sought-after stained-glass artist.
Stained-glass artist and portraitist David Hillman was born in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (now Latvia), in 1894, into a religious Jewish family. His father, descended from a line of Eastern European rabbis, served as rabbi at South Portland Street Synagogue after the family immigrated to Glasgow, Scotland in 1908. That year, aged just 14, Hillman secured a scholarship to the newly completed Charles Rennie Mackintosh building at Glasgow School of Art, despite his family’s reluctance. After six years in Glasgow, he followed his family to London, where he studied first at St John’s Wood School of Art, and then at the Royal Academy Schools between 1915 and 1920. There, he studied portraiture under William Orpen and John Singer Sargent, and stained glass with Sir George Frampton. In tandem with these studies, Hillman also completed his rabbinical training under Moses Gaster, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi (whose portrait by German refugee, Elsa Fraenkel, is held in the Ben Uri Collection), and he later became Minister at Sandys Row Synagogue in London’s East End. Though he later left formal rabbinical duties, his scholarship remained central to his art. Fluent in Hebrew and immersed in Talmudic study, he saw stained glass as a vehicle for religious teaching and spiritual reflection.
In the 1920s, Hillman focused on portraiture, producing carefully executed works over extended periods. His sitters included senior British politicians such as Edward Shortt and Edward Grey, as well as members of the Indian Jewish Sassoon family and his uncle, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog. Though painting offered modest returns, it was his turn to stained glass in the 1930s that proved decisive, particularly a 1935 commission for Leeds Synagogue, commemorating King George V’s Jubilee.
Hillman’s stained glass embraced rich, vibrant colour and intricate patterning, the subjects informed by his deep knowledge of Jewish scripture and traditions. He made frequent use of biblical verses and Hebrew script, which became a hallmark of his style. Over the following decades, he designed full sets of windows for numerous synagogues across London, including Great Portland Street; Hampstead Garden Suburb; Egerton Road; Willesden; Bayswater, and the Central Synagogue in Great Portland Street. His most ambitious undertaking was for St John’s Wood Synagogue, where 160 windows depicting Jewish holidays, musical instruments, and Old Testament scenes were installed across several decades. Another extensive body of work, installed over a fifteen-year period, are Hillman’s windows at the postwar Central Synagogue. Measuring three by nearly two metres, each panel illustrates a distinct biblical or festival theme, anchored by scriptural text and a central narrative that unfolds within the larger scene. Hillman’s windows often depict shofar-blowers, menorahs, Torah scrolls, and palm branches, rendered in saturated reds, blues, and golds. Panels are typically divided into triptychs, with Hebrew inscriptions woven through each scene. At St John’s Wood, his Rosh Hashanah window layers ram’s horns, apples, and honey - all symbols of the new year - beneath verses from Leviticus and Psalms.
From 1936, he lived with his wife, Annie Rabinowitz, and children at 91 Priory Road, West Hampstead, where he remodelled their home to include a studio with a large north-facing window and kiln, allowing him to produce and fire glass on site. Larger commissions were often realised in collaboration with established workshops, such as Lowndes and Drury in Fulham or through fabrication by Joseph E. Nuttgens. Hillman retained close control of the production process and was known for his attention to detail. Many of his designs were structured around narrative, combining striking figuration with a central motif or event, which he described as a ‘story within a story’. His religious training shaped the iconography of his work, which combined visual beauty with deep theological resonance. Hillman’s windows are widely recognised for offering a distinctively Jewish aesthetic within a medium often associated with Christian contexts, and for their effort to merge art and religious devotion. Hillman’s windows were strikingly distinct from the church-influenced designs of earlier synagogues, but they now appear traditional beside the bold, contemporary styles found in many newer synagogues across Israel and the diaspora.
Beyond his artistic career, Hillman was active in Jewish communal life. He supported émigré artists and families through the Association of German Refugees, and after the Second World War, he taught art through the Maccabi Association. His work was also installed outside the UK, most notably in the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem. His windows in Central Synagogue - painstakingly produced over 15 years - remain the most extensive display of his work in a single building. Originally commissioned to replace the windows destroyed during the Blitz, these designs span the breadth of the Jewish calendar and reflect Hillman’s lifelong commitment to conveying religious stories through stained glass. David Hillman died in London, England on 14 May 1974. His works are held in UK public collections, including the Ben Uri Collection, The Stained Glass Museum in Ely, Jewish Museum London and in synagogues across the UK.
David Hillman in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [David Hillman]
Publications related to [David Hillman] in the Ben Uri Library