We had an interesting request from a couple a few months ago: Ethan and his fiancee wanted to create a Ketubah that is a recreation of an old Ketubah that (if I remember correctly!) a relative of theirs used. We worked very hard and the result is… wonderful!

This one was an interesting challenge because, usually, the text and art are fairly separate. But here, the text IS the art. Every little textual change resulted on significant changes to the art! But the result is modern and we love it!

Interestingly, this was a Ketubah from the ’60s. When we think of “recreating” Ketubot, we think of recreating 18th century or ancient Ketubot. Not something hip from the hippie generation!

Our Recreation of an old Ketubah

Morgan from Team Ketubah meets one of our couples

(Note: this is a continuation of Part I, where I was speculating about what it would be like to meet one of our couples in person!).

So it finally happened: we met one of our couples in person. Craig and Neta, who fell in love with the IRT Today Ketubah, came to Argentina on their honeymoon. I ended up hanging out with them twice, book-ending their trip. It would have been more, had they not spent most of their honeymoon in the middle of nowhere Argentina, aka Bariloche.

I was very excited for the moment, since it would be a milestone. All previous couples of ours that I’ve met previously have been friends of ours. But these were downright random people, who found us using the Interwebs. Anything was possible. Mass murders? You do need to be crazy to come to Argentina, after all! Heh ;)

The first time we met was in my apartment. It turns out, the two of them are passionate about New York subways also — this is why they loved our IRT Today Ketubah! I, too, am a subway fanatic, and the walls of my apartment are covered with old-time subway maps, and we spent a long time discussing the history and details of the subway system, sharing stories about the old maps, and engaging in otherwise nerdy conversation that would put 99% of everyone to sleep. It was wonderful although, of course, they’re thinking, “The Morgan character, he can babble about obscure topics!”. We also helped them solve some crises they ran into, like not being able to get any money here!

The second time we met, we went to a great bar just past the Palermo limits. Above photo taken (I’m the one on the right, wearing a shirt I bought in Bombay!). They updated me on the hipster Williamsburg scene — apparently, I left years ago and then it became cool: typical! — and we analyzed in detail the sociodemographics of the New York Times wedding announcements. It was a fun night, of course full of alcohol.

I kept on thinking, if they lived here, I’d invite them to join my group of friends every Wednesday night when we hang out!

Conclusion: All of our Ketubot include, as an extra bonus, one or two very fun nights of drinking and conversation. If you ever make it to Argentina ;)

Morgan
Team Ketubah

It’s most common for couples, while planning their wedding, to buy a Ketubah for themselves. Sometimes, the parent’s or good friends, buy a ketubah for the couple as a gift.

But sometimes… creative children flip it, and buy a ketubah for their parents.

It’s a wonderful, unusual, and interesting anniversary gift: reminding them of the moment they got married; with more modern art than on their original ketubah; and, above all, they will hang it on their wall and see it every day — and smile.

There are many possible ways to create an anniversary ketubah, as a gift. We can do it as a surprise, or planning with them. We can recreate their original ketubah; do so with style and tweaks; or we can use one of our standard ketubot as an anniversary ketubah, or create a new one from scratch for them. We can use their original text, or one of our anniversary texts.

We can even change the color scheme to be silver or whatever the appropriate color is for the anniversary!

Questions? Sound interesting? Drop me a note and we can talk about it! I’m morgan@tinak.org !

-morgan
Team Ketubah

Josephine Earp’s Ketubah

Who knew? The wife of the ultimate Wild West Cowboy, the original, real-life (pre-movies!) bad-boy, the Old West gangster, Earl Warp… did you know that his wife was Jewish? Josephine Earp was born, Josephine Sarah Marcus.

Now their Ketubah is a Ketubah I would love to see.

Anyone interested in a Wild West Ketubah?

-morgan

We promise that, what happened to this couple, we would never let happen to you.

(If your Hebrew is rusty: the Rabbi put the wrong number of Zuzim into the Ketubah; so it said that, if you get divorced, the husband must pay the wife 540,000 rather than 54,000. Well, this one poor, poor couple Israel is getting divorced… and the wife is claiming that he owes her the full 540,000!)

Zuzim: the new Bitcoin!

We had a particularly intense day today: some serious meetings, a whole slew of sales, planning some exciting new lines and, above all… we needed to be all done by Shabbos!

Nina and I broke the tension by jumping in front of one of our walls, covered in our Ketubot! Here is what we look like and behind us, is what some of our ketubot look like!

Nina and Morgan jumping in front of a wall of Ketubahs, in our Arts Studio

Hey y’all!

Great news, for all of our Jewish friends on Brazil, and the 6 or 7 remaining Jews in Portugal: we now have Ketubot in Portuguese!

Since we spend half of our time in Buenos Aires, we are neighbors with Brazil and visit there regularly. Most recently, our very own Brad Ari Nickelbaum went to São Luís for Carneval a few weeks ago. Life is tough here in South America. But as they say, “Brazil is the land of the future… and always will be.” But did you know that observation was first made in a book by… an Austrian Jew (surprise, surprise) who moved to Brazil? Stefan Zweig, we miss you.

See our Ketubah texts (including Portuguese) page for the details — and if you want a Portuguese Ketubah, just ask!

-morgan
Team Ketubah