20 Sep 2013
Posted by Aliyah 
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Medieval Illumination – Aviv Ketubah
by Me’irah Iliinsky
Ketubah Description
This lyrical design is inspired by a page from a late 13th C. Egyptian Koran from an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York entitled “The Islamic World.” It is a familiar motif from the manuscripts of this era. Throughout Jewish history, Diaspora Jews folded much from the surrounding cultures into the Jewish milieu, and gave those elements a Jewish flavor. Using this design on a Ketubah continues that tradition. Aviv means springtime. These light colors symbolize the green freshness, the rosy warmth of love in the spring.
Ketubah Artist Bio
Me’irah Iliinsky is both a rabbi and an artist. She uses color and pattern as a portal for experiencing Jewish literary tradition from a visual perspective. Me’irah has done art work all her life. She has taken her inspiration from folk art, fairy tale illustration, illuminated manuscripts, the Pre-Raphaelites, the Arts and Crafts movement, Ze’ev Raban, Leonard Bakst. She graduated from Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2007, and now works as the rabbi and spiritual leader of Temple Beth El of Williamsburg, Virginia.
