This is a ketubah for a Jewish couple from Istanbul, Turkey. The wedding of Oro bat Avraham Aboulafia and Nissim Yehoshua ben Eliya ibn Haviv took place in 1863. The colourful, lavishly decorated ketubah is a good example of the folk art of the time. Vivid blue, red, and yellow flowers surround the text and in the centre of the ketubah is a scene of a river with a small boat, a tall building, and a tree enclosed in a gold circle. This is the scene of the Bosphoros Straits, which was familiar from the local landscape and appeared on a few other ketubot from Istanbul.
The quote on the top of the ketubah comes from Proverbs 18:22 and reads, “He who finds a wife finds happiness.” The text of the ketubah is preceded by an acronym which stands for B’Siman Tov (with good luck). The ketubah is signed by the witnesses and the groom. The signatures are written with decorative flourishes.
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Jews in Turkey – The story of Jewish settlement in Turkey began in the fifth century BCE, and mentions of Turkish Jewish communities can be found in the writings of the first-century CE Jewish historian, Josephus. Archaeological evidence from the ancient city of Sardis shows that Jews lived there from the fourth century. With the rise of the Ottoman Empire, the situation of the Jewish community depended on the particular Sultan who was in power. The Jewish community during the Ottoman times comprised Romaniote Jews, the community from the Eastern Mediterranean, a Karaite community. In the fifteenth century, Rabbi Yitzhak Sarfati, a leader of the Turkish Jewish community, wrote a letter to European Jewry, urging them to move to Turkey as it better to live among Muslims than Christians. The next wave of Jews to arrive in Turkey were Sephardi Jews who had been expelled from Spain in 1492. The Muslims in Turkey were interested in the skills that the Jews brought, especially in the areas of commerce and printing, and treated them with tolerance. The increase in size, prosperity, and influence enjoyed by the Jewish community during the years 1300–1600 saw a decline in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as Greek influence grew. By the beginning of the twentieth century, almost 200,000 Jews lived in the Ottoman Empire. With the end of the Empire and the beginning of the nationalist, secular state of Turkey, the Jewish population of Turkey declined. During World War II, Turkey remained neutral and many Jews escaping Nazi Germany traveled through Turkey on their way to other countries. Some Turkish diplomats, working independently, saved Jews during the Holocaust. With the creation of the State of Israel, many Turkish Jews immigrated to Israel. Turkey recognized Israel in 1949, making it one of the first countries to do so, and by 1951 nearly 40% of the Turkish Jewish community had moved to Israel. In 2012, 17,400 Jews lived in Turkey, almost entirely Sephardi and most living in Istanbul. In recent years, the situation of the community has declined, and the Neve Shalom Synagogue of Istanbul has suffered three terrorist attacks. These changes are due, in particular, to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the deterioration of the diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey. There are 26 active synagogues in Istanbul today, a Jewish museum, an elementary and secondary school, various social organisations, and a Jewish newspaper.
Ketubah – The ketubah is the Jewish wedding contract that is signed as a central part of the wedding ceremony. Written in Aramaic, the text of the ketubah was codified in the first century CE. An entire tractate of the Talmud called Ketubot is devoted to discussing the purpose and requirements of wedding contracts. The ketubah outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom toward his bride: the amount of money he must pay, the contents of her dowry, and the settlement in case of divorce. While the text has been very consistent throughout history, ketubah designs are very varied and many have calligraphic text and are illuminated. The National Library of Israel features over 4,200 ketubot on its collections, spanning the entire Jewish world over hundreds of years.
