i’ve always had a passion for art and design and try to live by the words of william morris, "have nothing in your house which you do not know to be beautiful or believe to be useful…"

people always ask me how I started making ketubot. in the summer of 1994 a great friend of mine was getting married. I had been doing decorative furniture painting, she was having trouble finding a ketubah that she liked and I offered to do one for her as a wedding gift. I spent the summer teaching myself hebrew calligraphy, creating my own “font” along the way and painted her a simple landscape as a border. from there I decided that this could be something really fulfilling, a way to blend my artistry and love of jewish ritual, as well as seeing that there was a need for a truly modern ketubah. I’m now working on a line of Judaica, starting with menorahs, that will embody the aesthetic of the 21st century.

I grew up in montreal and newton, massachusetts, going to solomon schechter day schools in each place, I went to camp ramah, spent a year in jerusalem and studied comparative religion and art history at barnard college, so it’s not so surprising that the judaism and art came together… later I lived in london, studied weaving, textiles and calligraphy.

and now i'm in new york. I love that I live and work in the same neighborhood where the yiddish culture thrived 100 years ago, and in a small way I’m bringing it back, but it’s also where everything new is happening… living in new york I get to go to all museums and galleries and draw on the modern style and creativity all around.

my favorite artists tend to use just a few elements to create something that seems simple and quiet and through that we see their talent: sculptors like goldsworthy, kapoor, noguchi, brancusi… painters like rothko, frankenthaler, rauschenberg, richter, and my artist friends, photographers like eggleston and cartier-bresson. I’m inspired by all sorts of things from Japanese textiles and eames chair to trees and the ocean.

making ketubot allows me to work with people at a very interesting time in their lives and to help people express their love for each other through art. what could be better?