Obj. ID: 55034
Sacred and Ritual Ketubbah, Jerusalem, 1912
The following description was prepared by William Gross:
A Ketubah (Hebrew: כְּתוּבָּה ; "written thing"; pl. Ketubot) is a special type of Jewish prenuptial agreement. It is considered an integral part of a traditional Jewish marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom, in relation to the bride. The content of the Ketubah is in essence a one-way contract that formalizes the various requirements by Halacha (Jewish law) of a Jewish husband vis à vis his wife. The Jewish husband takes upon himself in the Ketubah the obligation that he will provide to his wife three major things: clothing, food and conjugal relations, and also that he will pay her a pre-specified amount of cash in the case of a divorce. Thus the content of the Ketubah essentially dictates security and protection for the woman, and her rights in the marriage.
This document is signed and then given to the bride as her property. In Italy and most of the Islamic countries in which Jews resided, such a Ketubah was often decorated, a tradition originating with the Jews in Spain. Today, generally, printed Ketubot are used.
A beautiful gold printed Ketubah by one of the early printers in Eretz Israel, Abraham Moses Lunz/Luncz (Hebrew: אברהם לונץ). This type of imagery is used by his press on several printed sheets. There are other two Ketubots in the Gross Family Collection published by him with almost identical decorations.
The wedding took place on Tuesday 6 Tishrei 5673 (September 17, 1912).
sub-set tree: 
J | Jerusalem | Sites in Jerusalem: | Western Wall (Kotel) הכותל המערבי
O | Ornamentation: | Full page framed
O | Ornamentation: | Full page framed | Full page framed by text
P | Priest (Cohen; See also: High Priest, Elazar the Priest) | Priestly Blessing
C | Crown
T | Tablets of the Law
L | Lion
D | Deer
C | Columns
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Cities | Zikhron Yaakov זכרון יעקב
T | Temple Mount
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Cities | Rishon Le-Zion ראשון לציון
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Cities | Jaffa (Jaffo) יפו
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Holy Tombs | Elisha the Prophet, Tomb of
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Elijah's cave
J | Jerusalem | Sites in Jerusalem: | Tower of David מגדל דוד
T | Temple of Jerusalem | Temple of Solomon
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Holy Tombs | Absalom's Tomb
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Cities | Shechem (Nablus) שכם
H | Holy and other places in the Land of Israel | Cities | Jericho יריחו
H | Heraldic composition | Supporters | Lion and deer
|
Abraham Moses Lunz or Luncz (1854–1918) (Hebrew: אברהם לונץ) was a scholar, editor, and publisher in Jerusalem.
Lunz was born in Kovno, the Russian Empire (today Kaunas, Lithuania), and emigrated to Jerusalem at the age of 14.
Lunz owned a Hebrew printing press in the Ezrat Yisrael neighborhood, across the street from his home in Even Yisrael. He issued works by Palestinian scholars, Estori Farḥi's Kaftor wa-Feraḥ and Josef Schwarz's Tebu'ot ha-Areẓ being the first works published. He also published a new edition of the Jerusalem Talmud, guide-books for Palestine, Palestine annuals and his Jerusalem almanac: Netibot Ẓiyyon we-Yerushalayim: Topography of Jerusalem and Its Surroundings (vol. i, 1876); Jerusalem, Jahrbuch zur Beförderung einer Wissenschaftlich Genauen Kenntnis des Jetzigen und des Alten Palästina (Hebrew and German, 6 vols., 1881–1903, Hebrew: ירושלים, שנתון לידיעת ארץ ישראל); Literarischer Palästina-Almanach (Hebrew; since 1894).
Lunz suffered from early blindness and founded, in conjunction with Dr. Koisewski, an institution for the blind in Jerusalem.