14A
Federation Star
JEWISH INTEREST
February 2024
Paper-cutting An art form from days long past By Arlene Stolnitz
D
o you remember weather. Even the ink froze, those paper cutand he couldn’t continue his out snowflakes we work. He came up with a made when we were children? better idea and started cutting Those cutouts were much out letters for the Torah, and like the popular Polish folk so the first Jewish paper-cut craft of the 1800s called was created! wycinanki (vee-cee-non-key). Jewish paper-cuts were creKnown as folk art in other ated mainly by the poorest countries also, (for exammembers of the Jewish comple, papel-picado in Mexico, munity, countrypeople, who scherenschnitte in Germany), could not afford expensive Arlene Stolnitz the art of cutting designs into religious plaques. Many were bark, parchment, fabric and paper was created by soferim and rabbis as a way widely practiced among other cultures of earning additional funds. The paperfor thousands of years. Polish art works cut’s function was mainly symbolic. We were popular in decorating the houses of know paper-cuts were quite common non-Jewish peasants and often consisted in Ashkenazic Jewish homes, although of older Slavic traditions of protective relatively few survived. It is certainly plaques and symbols. Colorful decorative understandable due to their fragile nature arts were most important in the cultural and vulnerability of the material. life of the Polish people. Paper-cuts included items such as mizThe Polish Jewish population, a highly rach (directions for prayer) and shiviti literate people, created their own style of (meditative prayer), ketubot (Jewish paper-cuts, but theirs were strictly relimarriage contracts), yahrzheit lists (lists gious in nature. Although there are some of deceased family members), omer (callegends that trace the origin of Judaic endar listings), megillot (scrolls of book paper-cutting back to the 13th century, of Esther) and documents for religious very few can be dated with certainty ceremonies and observances. Paper-cuts before the latter part of the 18th century. were usually decorated with traditional Most items we know of today range symbols found in Judaism and often from the 19th to the early 20th century. included animals and birds as well as calAccording to one legend I read, there ligraphic inscriptions in Hebrew. Paper was once a rabbi who wanted to rewrite was cheaper to use than wood or metal the Torah but had problems with cold and was easy to get, especially after the
The Cardozo Society is formed as a way to network the many existing and new Jewish attorneys in our legal community. The Jewish Federation of Greater Naples continues to reach out to raise awareness through this association of Jewish attorneys promoting professionalism, cooperation, and identification with our Jewish community. For more information contact Joshua Bialek at
jbialek@porterwright.com
OF GREATER NAPLES
introduction of cheap woodpulp paper in the mid-19th century. The simplest of tools could be used ... paper, pen and ink, pencil, penknife, watercolors and colored crayons which were readily available. If a mistake was made, it could easily be replaced, just start over! According to Giza Frankel, whose study of Jewish folk art has spanned five decades, paper-cuts were made mainly by men and schoolboys. However, one researcher claims to have spoken to a woman who remembers having learned the art as a girl. Jewish immigrants arrived in America from Eastern Europe in great numbers in the late 19th century and brought with them the art of papercutting. As I have written in prior columns, Baruch Zvi Ring, my husband’s grandfather, came to Rochester, New York from Vishay, Lithuania, in 1902. His earliest known paper-cut had been created in Europe when Ring was only 10 years old. According to experts, it shows his love of intricate patterns and clarity of composition. The artist's signature appears in the lozenges (diamonds) attached to the lower roundels (medallions): "My handiwork in which I glory (Isaiah 60:21) From me, Baruch Zvi son of Jacob.” Although much of the traditional art form has been lost, there has been a rebirth of interest in the art form by young, accomplished artists in this country. It is my hope that Americans will come to know something of the arts of the Jewish people as practiced in the past. Arlene Stolnitz, the “Jewish Music” contributor to Federation papers the past eight
years, is starting a new series focusing on Judaic folk art. A native of Rochester, New York, Stolnitz is a retired educator and lives in Venice, Florida.
