Ketubah Graphia at Brooklyn Bridal Fair

This Sunday, March 7th, at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Ketubah Graphia will be participating in the first annual Brooklyn Bridal fair with a great line-up of talented vendors in the industry, all based in Brooklyn. I will be there with samples of Jewish wedding contracts and non-Jewish calligraphed vows, and to meet with brides-to-be to discuss creating the perfect original work of art to honor their specific ceremony. I hope to see you there.

BAM, Brooklyn’s leading cultural institution and an international leader in performance arts, will host the show on March 7th in partnership with Great Performances, its exclusive caterer, and supported by Edible Brooklyn, the voice of the new food movement in the boro.

Ketubah Graphia contributes work to auction supporting victims of the Mumbai Massacre

Ketubah Graphia contributed a hand-calligraphed ketubah for silent auction to the Light on Mumbai fund raising event in support of the victims and families of the Mumbai Massacre that occurred November 2008.

The Mumbai Massacre claimed 200 people and over 400 innocent victims were affected. The ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Hospital in Mumbai will help allocate the funds from this and other fundraisers for the victims and families of Mumbai’s CST Railway Station, Cama Hospital, Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and Tower Hotel staff/restaurant workers, the Mumbai police, and NSG (India’s National Security Guard commandos), for their very needed rehabilitation and to set up post-traumatic stress disorder programs, of which there is none at this time.

This humanitarian event was organized by K. Michael Ferranti of Gotham Ayurveda and held at East West Living Galleries/Himalayan Institute on Saturday, April 4th, 2009.  It was an honor to be involved in this cause.

Discount in honor of marriage equality victories in Vermont and Iowa

In honor of the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a lower-court ruling that marriage should not be limited to one man and one woman, thus creating civil marriage equality for same-sex couples in that state, as well as the legalization of gay marriage in Vermont, Ketubah Graphia—dedicated to providing original works of art to commemorate unions for the GLBT community—is offering a special discount for gay and lesbian couples who now plan to get married in these two states.

Ketubah Graphia is overjoyed by the news from Iowa and Vermont. Based in New York—which has yet to provide marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples—KetubahGraphia.com has nonetheless been proudly serving the GLBT community for many years. During this time the company has been an advocate for this important issue which represents fairness and equality for all people regardless of sexual orientation. We are aware of the significance of this ruling for the residents of both states as well as for others in the GLBT community and wanted to provide them with distinct hand-made works of art representing the union and commitment between two people and something that will become an integral part of and significant symbol in their lives.

In celebration of these landmark decisions, Ketubah Graphia is offering customers marrying in Iowa and Vermont 25% off custom orders through May 31, 2009.

Contact us today at aliza@ketubahgraphia.com or 646.812.0584 to start your order….and CONGRATULATIONS!

More graphia than just ketubahs

Many people have been asking if I create custom works of art for occasions other than weddings and commitment ceremonies. While this website focuses on my ketubahs (wedding contracts) and does not contain images of my other work, I am available to provide hand-calligraphed works in Hebrew and/or English for any occasion. These unique and personalized works of art follow the same design aesthetic as my ketubahs–using high quality paper and inks, celebrating the handwritten letter and concentrating on the essence of the chosen text. Just as with the ketubah, I hope these ritual objects become an integral part of and significant symbol in people’s lives.

Contact me at aliza@ketubahgraphia.com or 646.812.0584 to discuss the creation of an original work of art for any of the following occasions and more: Bar/bat mitzvah gifts with name, special verse and/or Haftorah portion; Custom birth announcements, baby naming certificates for simchat bat or bris with name, date, details; Engagement, wedding or anniversary gifts with names, date, verse.

Prices run between $100-$300 dollars.

Calligraphy for invitations, envelopes and placecards are priced per piece.

The Ketubot Digitization Project

Did you know that marriage contracts are the earliest written agreements to survive until the present?

The ketubot digitization project is a registry of ketubot held in public and private collections throughout the world, representing ketubot originating from 500 countries, from Afghanistan to Yugoslavia and dating back from the year 1024 to the present.

Over generations, various local customs found their way into the legal text of the ketubah and ketubah decorations reflected the Jewish art of each locality and period. Ketubot are therefore a rich source of material on Jewish history, law, customs and art.

The project is based on the collection of the Jewish National and University Library. With over 1400 items and growing, highlights of the collection include the earliest ketubah which comes from Israel and dates from 1024; 226 illuminated ketubot from Italy; and a ketubah fragment from Segura, Spain, written only a few years before the Expulsion.

The entire collection has been scanned and catalogued. The fact that, as legal documents, ketubot contain exact dates and place names allows their absolute identification with specific communities and periods and makes this collection is a major resource for research.

Please visit http://jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/ketubbot to see examples of ketubot designs throughout the ages.