How a three-decade old encounter helped launch Ketubah.com
By Michael Shapiro
I rarely tell the origin story of our business, Ketubah.com. I believe it’s a crucial time to be sharing it now more than ever. It was a walk through an artist’s studio in Israel three decades ago that changed everything for me.
After leaving corporate life, I was studying traditional Jewish texts at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. During my free time, I started networking with Judaica artists throughout Israel—makers of challah boards, Kiddush cups, candlesticks, prayer shawls.
In June 1995, I found myself at Ardyn Halter’s studio in Pardes Hanna (yes, the first word of this town’s name is the same as the name of the remarkable yeshiva where I was studying —it means “orchard”). This British-Israeli artist with a distinguished background lived on a little piece of land with fruit trees, and his studio was a separate building where magic happened.
Ardyn welcomed me in and started pulling art from little drawers. Small blessings for the home, beautiful tree-shaped pieces about family legacy. Then he showed me ketubahs.
I had never seen an artistic ketubah before. My parents had a simple piece of paper from their rabbi tucked away in a filing cabinet somewhere. I didn’t even know there was supposed to be artistry involved in Jewish marriage contracts.
These ketubahs were ornate and masterfully executed, many with gold highlights. To this day I remember one design, Festivals of Israel, that included imagery for each major Jewish holiday. Unlike many popular abstract designs today, these ketubahs were deeply symbolic and literal—gorgeous traditional work that felt like discovering buried treasure.
I immediately asked: “How would it work for me to represent you and sell these when I get back home?”
That conversation in a small Israeli town became Ketubah.com. Nearly three decades later, we’ve grown from that single artist to over 75 leading artists and 900+ designs.
I’m both proud and humbled by how far we’ve come from that moment of discovery in Ardyn’s studio. Most of all, I’m grateful to the thousands and thousands of couples who have trusted us with such a sacred part of their lives—grateful to you all.
