Ketubbah. Isfahan, 1881

It was customary in ketubbot from other Italian cities such as Venice and Padua to include a depiction of Jerusalem above the text. This is a direct allusion to the biblical verse which mandates that one should “keep Jerusalem in memory even at [one’s] happiest hour” (Ps. 137:6). In this ketubbah, the same result is achieved by the insertion of the word “Jerusalem,” boldly written in monumental Ashkenazic calligraphy, under the elegantly scalloped upper border. [x]

This ketubbah was a first for me: the first ketubbah that I've hand-delivered in Minneapolis! And another first: in specifying the place, this couple chose to include a land acknowledgement: "here, on the occupied traditional land of the Dakota and Anishinaabe people, now known as Minneapolis." Pretty sure this is the first time anyone has ever written Anishinaabe on a ketubbah, too, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong! 😂 Do you know whose land you live on? Check out native-land.ca to find out!

“This early and exceedingly rare marriage contract from the port city of Livorno is ornamented with a sumptuous array of decorative elements. Above the text, a panoramic view of the walled city of Jerusalem is surrounded by six small medallions illustrating verses from Psalm 128 traditionally sung at Italian weddings. Bordering the text are twenty-four elaborate vignettes. Twelve of these feature emblems, each of which signifies one of the twelve tribes of Israel; each of these emblems is, in turn, coupled with a corresponding zodiac sign. These begin directly above the first word of the text with Aries / Issachar and proceed counter-clockwise. The remaining twelve scenes depict the four Aristotelian elements (Water, Earth, Wind and Fire), as well as the four seasons of the year and the four senses (Taste, Sight, Smell and Hearing). Dr. Shalom Sabar has shown how this multifaceted imagery, incorporating the earliest pairing in Jewish art of the emblems of the twelve tribes with the signs of the zodiac, demonstrates a highly sophisticated view of the world as well as an in-depth knowledge of Jewish sources.”

For Black History Month, we invited writer Antwaun Sargent to explore works of art in the Jewish Museum Collection that celebrate the intersection of the black and Jewish experience. Nigerian artist ruby onyinyechi amanze’s ketubbah (marriage contract) newly commissioned for Scenes from the Collection, imagines a racially-ambiguous couple surrounded by symbols of constellations that integrate the ethos of the ketubbah and black identity. 

The bride is Miriam bat Avrum, and the groom is only listed as Perez.