KETUBAH RENAISSANCE
With Ketubah.com founder Michael Shapiro
Author of Ketubah Renaissance: The Artful Modern Revival of the Jewish Marriage Contract
Wednesday, November 12, 2025, 12:00 PM
Ketubah expert Michael Shapiro will guide you on a dazzling exploration of the Jewish marriage contract, from its ancient roots 2,500 years ago as a groom’s pledge, to a richly decorated modern work of art. Join Michael to celebrate the artists creating bold, contemporary ketubot that reflect today’s values and love stories.
A companion exhibit of ketubahs created by various artists and curated by Michael Shapiro will be on display in the Simon Family JCC’s Leon Family Gallery, October 6-November 16.
$15 for JCC members, $20 for potential members. Includes lunch.
Pre-registration required.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Shapiro is the founder of Ketubah.com, the world’s leading ketubah publisher. Since 1996 he has shaped the development of contemporary ketubah art, collaborating with established and emerging artists, and helping over 50,000 Jewish, interfaith and LGBTQ+ couples find their perfect ketubah. His innovations include marrying laser cutting and print-on-demand with traditional hand finishes, the Ketubah Text Tool and HebrewNamer.com.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Ketubah Renaissance serves as an inspiring guide through the history of the ketubah and its current range of representations. As the scholar Shalom Sabar notes in the foreword, the earliest illustrated Jewish marriage contract was produced in Austria in 1391. Sparked by the Spanish Expulsion, the custom of decorating the text then spread across Europe and the Middle East, reaching “an artistic peak in leading Jewish communities such as Venice, Rome, Mantua, and Ancona.” After a decrease in popularity in subsequent centuries in Ashkenazic lands, Sephardic Jews carried on the practice.
The flourishing of Jewish communities in Israel and the US during the past few decades, coupled with advancing artistic technology, have led to a resurgence in illustrated ketubot, which the book demonstrates through sixty examples, helpfully introduced by Shapiro, who also provides biographical information on each artist. Included are wondrous ketubot by Naomi Teplow, Amy Fagin, Jessica Tamar Deutsch, Baruch Sienna and dozens of others.
As the preface notes, beautifying ketubot is in line with a Jewish concept of hiddur mitzvah. The principle, the artist David Moss has noted, suggests that “when a joyous commandment requires a physical object for its performance, that object should be a beautiful one if possible.” In a similar vein, “The Song of the Sea,” Exodus’ fifteenth chapter, contains the verse “this is my God and I will glorify Him.”
From papercut to woodcut to AI-generated images, this volume offers a tapestry of testimonies to not only the love Jewish couples have for each other, but their affinity for the traditional text that reflects covenantal love of the Jewish people and God.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Joel Rubin is the CEO of Rubin Communications group, which he founded with his wife, Sara Jo, in 1991. His public and media relations work is guided by his experience in the local media, including 15 award-winning years as a news and features reporter with WAVY-TV (NBC) and nearly 17 as host of a weekly Sunday morning political talk show on WVEC-TV (ABC). A native of Richmond and a 1975 graduate of the University of Virginia, Joel has devoted years of volunteer service to organizations. Joel is past Chairman of the Board of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and a past President of the Virginia Beach Forum and Temple Israel Synagogue in Norfolk. Today he serves on the boards of the Portsmouth Partnership and Give Back 2 Da Block.
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 of the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and associate adjunct professor of Music and Jewish Studies at the 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
Thanks to the generous support of the Bartel Family, in honor of their parents and grandparents, Alan & Dolores Bartel, the following accessibility accommodations are available for UJFT's programs (depending on the program location). Accommodations must be requested at least a week prior to the event.
- Interpreting services for Deaf or non-English speakers
- Assisted listening services to amplify sounds
- Preferential seating near a presenter to aid in comprehension
- Sensory fidget tools
- Noise-reducing headphones
- Stand-assist devices
- Audio recording of written materials for the visually impaired
