Mah yofi!

Tree of Life from Palace of Shaki Khans, Azerbaijan 

History and modern revival of Jewish papercuts in Poland

Art of papercutting is an important branch of Polish folk culture and crafts. The artworks called in Polish wycinanki were decorating houses of Polish peasants in the past, and many regional styles developed over the centuries up until the interwar period. The art became extremely popular in 19th century when manufactured paper was easy to obtain in the villages, and is a follow-up of older traditions of preparing Slavic protective plaques and symbols out of other available materials. It is also partly influenced by Jewish traditions of complex paper art.

Alongside the development of Polish wycinanki, the Jewish population of old Poland (and also of other countries) was creating their own characteristic style of papercuts. Just like in the case of wycinanki made by the Polish countrypeople, the Jewish papercuts were created mainly by the poorest members of Jewish communities who couldn’t afford expensive religious plaques (like painted or embroidered). Jewish papercuts had strictly a religious character, therefore their main types designated not regions like in the case of Polish wycinanki, but mainly their symbolic function, such as:

(I included Polish-Jewish and English spelling of the types)

Jewish tales and legends trace the custom of creating the papercuts to 13th century. According to these legends, there was once a rabbi who wanted to rewrite the Torah but had problems with cold weather - even the ink froze and he couldn’t continue his work. He came up with a better idea and started cutting out letters for the Torah, and so the first Jewish papercut was created.

Among most of Jewish communities only the males were allowed to create the papercuts. The paper was cut with the use of very sharp shears or a shoemaker’s knife, and was often painted with watercolours or pencils afterwards.

This tradition started fading out at the beginning of 20th century, but was still noticed among some Jewish communities during the interwar period (between 1st and 2nd World Wars). After the tragic invasion of Poland by the Nazi Germany, the tradition disappeared completely, and almost all of surviving papercuts were destroyed by the Nazis along with other Jewish property.

Jewish papercuts were revived after the war in USA and Israel. Most notable were analysis performed by ethnologist Dr. Giza Frankel who released a book dedicated to art of the Jewish papercuts in 1980s. 

After the fall of the Soviet Block, another important centre of the Jewish papercuts’ revival became Kraków in Poland, where an annual Jewish Culture Festival is organized since 1988. Most notable artists creating the Jewish papercuts nowadays in Poland are for example Anna Małecka-Beiersdorf, Marta Gołąb, Monika Krajewska, Agata Szepe, Anna Ćwiklińska or Piotr ‘Kranc’ Stuczyński. Artworks of these artists are included in the photoset above.

Sources of pictures:

For more images, you can google ‘Jewish papercuts’ or the Polish term ‘wycinanka żydowska’.

from Abracadabra: Myth, Magic and Monsters, a group show exploring Jewish esoterica at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

Jewish man prays at Western Wall during Tisha B'Av in Jerusalem, Israel; 2009. x

Tisha B’Av, or the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, is customarily a day of fast and mourning for Jewish people.  The day marks the destruction of the First and Second Temples, but it also marks the day the final stronghold of the Bar Kokhba Revolt was captured, the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290 C.E., the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, and the beginning of World War I.

In 2016, Tisha B’Av begins the night of August 13th and ends the night of August 14th.

Pomegranate Trees Among the Ruins by Jason Noble, October 2014.

Jerusalem Synagogue, Prague, Old Town

Ohel Leah Synagogue in Hong Kong.

Originally the [Jewish] community [of Hong Kong] was mostly Baghdadi and the synagogue was under the superintendence of the Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation of London: it is now fully independent and has members from across the Jewish diaspora. Most of Hong Kong’s Jews live only a short distance away from the Synagogue, which sits at the junction of Robinson Road and Castle Road. An example of Colonial Sephardic architecture, the two-storied, whitewashed, multi-turreted Synagogue nestles amid the soaring high-rises of steel and glass perched on the Mid-Levels of Hong Kong Island. The Synagogue was designed by the architects Leigh & Orange and was erected in 1901-2. (x)

Jewish woman’s wrap (izar) and face veil (khiliyye)

Baghdad, Iraq, late 19th – early 20th century Silk, gilt metal thread; veil: horsehair Gift of Helene Simon and Hanina Shasha, New York, in memory of their mother, Louise Zilka n?e Bashi Gift of Mazli Nawi, Ramat Gan

The most famous of the Baghdad workshops belonged to master weaver Menashe Yitzhak Sa'at, nicknamed Abu-al-Izan (“father of the izar”) due to the fabric wraps in which he specialised. One year after Sa'at immigrated to Israel, the izar industry in Baghdad came to an end.

Molla Jacob synagogue is small but important in a city with a rich Jewish history. Esfehan, Iran

Yemenite Jewish wedding (via Yemen Music of the Yemenite Jews)

During a Yemenite Jewish wedding, the bride is bedecked with jewelry and wears the traditional wedding costume of Yemenite Jews. Her elaborate headdress is decorated with flowers and rue leaves, which are believed to ward off evil. Gold threads are woven into the fabric of her clothing. Songs are sung as a central part of a seven-day wedding celebration and their lyrics often tell of friendship and love in alternating verses of Hebrew and Arabic. (x)

In honor of #MiniatureMonday, a compact prayer book with enameled metal cover boards from the I. Edward Kiev Judaica Collection. 

Sidur ʻAvodat Yiśraʼel (Tel Aviv: Sinai, 1958).

@residinginpurgatory reblogged your photo: “Judith, by Arthur Scyk” #Saints#Saint Judith

??? Are Christians reblogging this stuff? Weird

Yeah, Judith’s story is one of my favorites.

I respect that, because Judith was fucking badass, but like...you do realize this is specifically a Jewish blog, right? All the art here is created by Jews, for Jews, and reflects the Jewish perspective