THE ART The decorative art of cutting designs into bark, parchment, fabric and paper has existed for thousands of years. The earliest cuttings with Hebrew letters and Jewish symbols were created in Holland and Italy in the 17th century, in paper and parchment. Traditionally, Jewish papercutting was created by using a knife and a sheet of paper folded in half. These early cuttings were done as decorative work on Ketubot (Jewish marriage contracts) and as scenes depicting the story of Esther on the scroll of Esther, read on the holiday of Purim. As paper became more accessible in the 19th century, papercutting became more popular as a folk art throughout the Jewish communities of North Africa, Europe and the Pale of Settlement. In Eastern Europe, papercut Mizrahim (decorative wall hangings for the Eastern wall of a home, facing Jerusalem) were often seen, as were papercut Simchat Torah flags and papercut birthing amulets. Between the 19th century and the mid-20th century, small flower- shaped papercuts (royselach) were used to decorate windows on the holiday of Shavuot in Russia and Poland. Unfortunately, because of the transient nature of the materials used and because of historical events, not many papercuts from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries survive. European papercut artists brought their talents to the United States in the 19th century and therefore, traditional Jewish papercuts can be found with many American symbols from that era. Jewish papercutting has revived as a decorative folk art in the last thirty years. ART ARTIST GALLERY CONTACT © All Rights Reserved.