The Artful Modern Revival of the Jewish Marriage Contract
By Michael Shapiro
Illuminating the contemporary revival of the Jewish marriage contract, Ketubah Renaissance relays the storied history of this beloved document (known in Hebrew as a ketubah) through the present day and showcases sixty of the most innovative and beautiful ketubot of the last half century.
Originally created 2,500 years ago as a unilateral marriage contract stating what a groom would provide for his bride, the ketubah evolved from the tenth century onward into a richly decorated expression of love and commitment. Starting in the late 1960s a modern sensibility took root. Influenced by Jewish life and North American society at large, hundreds of artists and calligraphers began to imprint their unique aesthetic onto each ketubah design—a movement Judaica scholar Shalom Sabar calls “a veritable renaissance of the illuminated ketubbah”—while also updating the original Aramaic text to express contemporary values.
Couples and families with upcoming weddings as well as officiating clergy, educators, aficionados of Jewish culture, scholars, and others will discover the evolving history of the ketubah in all its facets: its artforms, texts, scripts, iconography, production processes, and technological innovations. A curated, chronological ketubah gallery brings readers up close to sixty influential ketubot and the artists who created them—a colorful cornucopia of breakthroughs that epitomize the ketubah renaissance.
Praise
“Thoughtful, inspiring, ingenious, inventive, playful, profound. . . . Adjectives fail me. Ketubah Renaissance is a gorgeous testament to the creative, aesthetic, and spiritual health of Jewish life in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. The images summon the ‘mazal tovs’ of weddings past, present, and future.”—Anita Diamant, author of twelve books, including The Red Tent and The Jewish Wedding Now
“Offers a bird’s-eye view into the fascinating journey of one of Judaism’s oldest forms of visual culture. Through careful selection, ancient and modern patterns emerge in the development of a veritable contemporary Ketubah Renaissance.”—Francesco Spagnolo, curator, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and associate adjunct professor of Music and Jewish Studies, University of California, Berkeley
“This stunning collection of marriage contracts in many media, from paper cuts to fabric, accompanied by an accessible history, is a must-have for anyone who loves Jewish ritual art.”—Jodi Eichler-Levine, Berman Professor of Jewish Civilization at Lehigh University and author of Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilience and Create Community
“Clear, well organized, and thoroughly researched, Ketubah Renaissance will make an outstanding gift to a couple soon to be married, providing ideas for the text and illustration of their own marriage contract as well as teaching about the history of ketubot. For rabbis, educators, and scholars as well, it’s an exceptional addition to the existing volumes on historical ketubot.”—Dorion Liebgott, editor of Art and Tradition: Treasures of Jewish Life
“This comprehensive and accessible introduction to ketubot will aid couples in their ketubah decision-making process.”—Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, coeditor of The Jewish Catalog
