Pre-Holiday Bargain Hunters

9:30 AM Crowd, waiting for the opening of the Fortune Wigs store in Brooklyn

Is it the latest iPhone? No. It’s the Fortune Wigs One Day Crazy Outlet Sale; and ladies looking to get a bargain wig for the holidays are making sure that they get there first. Sheitel shopping does weigh heavily on a family’s budget, and the idea of getting a quality wig at a deep discount has widespread appeal. Many wig retailers are running holiday sales at this time. Fortune Wigs’ sale is a one day only, ‘final sale’ event, only today – Sunday, Aug 5th. Are you going to be one of the fortunate ones to get a ‘cheap’ Fortune Wig?

Another famous wig sale is the Milano. Their holiday sales are held at various locations. To find the one near you, see their website. Happy Hunting!

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Happy Tu BeAv (15th of Av)

Today, the 15th of Av is a minor Jewish holiday about which Rabbon Shimon Ben Gamiliel in Mishnah in Taanit says that Israel had no days as festive as Tu BeAv, for on it the girls of Jerusalem would go out dressed in borrowed white dresses so as not to embarrass one who hadn’t (a dress of her own). They would go out and dance in the vineyards…. This gathering of young men and women was a way for them to find a match, speed dating of sorts. Since then, Tu BeAv has become associated with love and with marriage. And although the tradition of maidens in white has not persisted, even today many weddings, traditional and non-traditional, are held on this day. To all those that are tying the knot on this day (or any other day), we wish you a heartfelt Mazel Tov!

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Ketubah Gallery | Part 1: Tradition

Judaic decorative art has many forms and styles. Steeped in the often turbulent but for that rich and multifaceted history of the Jewish people and sometimes combined with a Jewish desire to be more modern than modern, today’s Judaic artworks express themselves with diversity of colors and shapes, of ideas and symbols. To a sensitive eye, Judaic art is a confluence of experiences through time (the long history of our nation) and space (the geographic dispersion throughout the four corners of the earth) expressed through the prism of uniquely personal vision and personal experience of the artist.

Ketubah, although essentially a legal document (and legal papers rarely find themselves a source for artistic inspiration), has been an important outlet for artistic expression for hundreds of years. Before we explore contemporary Ketubah artists, let me post here a few examples of Ketubahs of yesterday. There are a few Ketubah collections on the web; here are just a few excerpts from these that caught our attention:

These are from the New York Public Library collection:

(To see more from this collection of rare, antique ketubahs, click here: NYPL Digital Library)

[Ketubbah. Isfahan, 1881]. Digital ID: 1238124. New York Public Library

1881, Isfahan, Iran

Reggio Emilia, 1770

Reggio Emilia, 1774

[Ketubbah. Nizza Monferrato, 1... Digital ID: 1238114. New York Public Library

Nizza Monferrato, 1782

Another Digital collection can be found at the Jewish National and University Library; here are a few excerpts:

Bayonne, France, 1695

Salonika, Greece, 1883

Rome, Italy, 1638

Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1661 (this printed ketubah appears in many weddings of the time.)

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Gifts by Color: Cool Blues

As the weather gets hot and the sun constantly splashes the atmosphere with the warm hues of deep yellow and orange, colors that just a couple of months ago we would look for in our windows with eager anticipation, we seem to be drawn now to the coolness of the blues, greens, and turquoise, colors that remind us of the refreshing coolness of water. I collected here for you a few items that, if you are like me who likes to color coordinate your gifts, you might appreciate this time of year, and hopefully so will the recipients. (Click on the images for more details.)