Mickie Caspi | |
|---|---|
 Mickie Caspi, Israeli-American master calligrapher and artist filling in the Mystic Jerusalem Ketubah, Artists' Studio, December 2014 | |
| Born | Micha Padawer June 7, 1961 Chicago, IL |
| Nationality | Israeli-American |
| Alma mater | Columbia College |
| Spouse | Eran Caspi |
| Website | caspicards |
Mickie Caspi is an Israeli-American calligrapher and artist specializing in Judaica.
Caspi was raised in Highland Park, Illinois by two artists, Thelma and Philip Padawer, [1] who encouraged creativity from a young age. She lived in Israel on Kibbutz Nachshon for three years (1970–73). [2] After returning to Highland Park, she studied art at Columbia College in Chicago. [3] [4]
Caspi worked as an artist-in-residence at the Kohl Jewish Teacher Center in Wilmette, Illinois. [5] After graduating from Columbia College in 1982, [6] she returned to Israel, living on Kibbutz Harel and then in Jerusalem. She spent seven years as a freelance artist and calligrapher in Israel before returning to the United States in 1989 and establishing Caspi Cards & Art. [7] Her hundreds of original designs have been reproduced on greeting cards, Judaic art prints, calendars and is known for her innovations as a Ketubah artist. [8] [9] She introduced the first pre-printed Same Sex Ketubah text in 1994, [10] predating Same-sex marriage laws in the United States.
Caspi derives her inspiration from many sources, including traditional Jewish motifs, Persian and Arabic illumination, contemporary graphics, as well as art nouveau and art deco. [11] Her art has been exhibited in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston, and her illustrations have appeared in Hebrew children's books [12] and English publications. According to Marc Michael Epstein (scholar of religion, focusing on Jewish religious culture), "Examples by American artist... Mickie Caspi are among the best and brightest examples of motifs often found in ketubot from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries." [13]
Caspi volunteered at the Horace Mann School in Newton, Massachusetts. In 2011, the Oakland Hebrew Day School used her artwork as a stepping off point for the students to create their own works of art. [14] She has illustrated books including the 1987 reprint of The Sea's Gift, 1930 [Matnat Ha-Yam] by Levin Kipnis, which represented Israel at the International Children's Book Invitational. [15]
An avid organic gardener, Caspi incorporates the beauty of nature into much of her artwork. [16] She currently resides in Newton, Massachusetts, is married, and has three children and two grandsons. [17] [18]
Operation Nachshon was a Jewish military operation during the 1948 war. Lasting from 5–16 April 1948, its objective was to break the Siege of Jerusalem by opening the Tel Aviv – Jerusalem road blockaded by Palestinian Arabs and to supply food and weapons to the isolated Jewish community of Jerusalem. The operation was also known as "The operation to take control of the Jerusalem road,", following which participating units later broke off to form the Harel Brigade.
Beit Alfa is a kibbutz in the Northern District of Israel, founded in 1922 by immigrants from Poland. Located at the base of the Gilboa ridge, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gilboa Regional Council. As of 2019 its population was 1,075.
A ketubah is a Jewish marriage contract. It is considered an integral part of a traditional Jewish marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom, in relation to the bride. In modern practice, the ketubah has no agreed monetary value, and is seldom enforced by civil courts, except in Israel.
Ein Harod (Meuhad) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Jezreel Valley near Mount Gilboa, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gilboa Regional Council. In 2019 it had a population of 760.
Anna Ticho was an Israeli artist who became famous for her drawings of the Jerusalem hills. The house in Jerusalem that she shared with her husband is now a branch of the Israel Museum and a café.
Archie Granot is a papercutting artist based in Israel. He works in traditional Jewish art, including ketubahs (ketubot), mizrachs, mezuzahs, haggadah and blessings for the Jewish life cycle, etc.
A Jewish wedding is a wedding ceremony that follows Jewish laws and traditions. While wedding ceremonies vary, common features of a Jewish wedding include a ketubah which is signed by two witnesses, a chuppah or huppah, a ring owned by the groom that is given to the bride under the canopy, and the breaking of a glass.
Ein Harod was a kibbutz in northern Israel near Mount Gilboa. Founded in 1921, it became the center of Mandatory Palestine's kibbutz movement, hosting the headquarters of the largest kibbutz organisation, HaKibbutz HaMeuhad.
Hanita is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the western Galilee approximately 15 kilometres northeast of Nahariya, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Asher Regional Council. In 2019 it had a population of 756.
Hulda is a kibbutz in central Israel. Located in the Shephelah near the Hulda Forest and the Burma Road, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gezer Regional Council. In 2019 it had a population of 1,163.
Beth Alpha is a sixth-century CE synagogue located at the foot of the northern slopes of the Gilboa mountains near Beit She'an, Israel. It is now part of Bet Alfa Synagogue National Park and managed by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.
Khulda, also Khuldeh, was a Palestinian Arab village located 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) south of Ramla in the Mandatory Palestine. Known as Huldre to the Crusaders, it is also mentioned in documents dating to the periods of Mamluk, Ottoman, and Mandatory rule over Palestine. During the 1948 war, the village was depopulated as part of Operation Nachshon and was subsequently destroyed. The Israeli kibbutz of Mishmar David was established that same year on land belonging to the village.
Harel Brigade is a reserve brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, today part of the Southern Command. It played a critical role in the 1948 Palestine war, also known as "Israel's War of Independence." It is one of the former divisions of the Palmach, the elite fighting force of the Haganah, that remains in the Israeli Defense Forces.
The Jewish Theological Seminary Library is one of the largest Jewish libraries in the world. Founded in 1893, it is located at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City, New York, and holds over 400,000 volumes, as well as extensive rare materials collections, including the world's largest collection of Hebrew manuscripts. Its holdings have been described as "the most impressive compilation of Jewish historical materials outside of Jerusalem." The library is an affiliate of the Columbia University Libraries.
Jewish paper cutting is a traditional form of Jewish folk art made by cutting figures and sentences in paper or parchment. It is connected with various customs and ceremonies, and associated with holidays and family life. Paper cuts often decorated ketubbot, Mizrahs, and ornaments for festive occasions. Paper cutting was practiced by Jewish communities in both Eastern Europe and North Africa and the Middle East for centuries and has seen a revival in modern times in Israel and elsewhere.
Orit Ishay is an Israeli artist working in photography, video and installation. She is also a lecturer in photography. Ishay's art examines the interrelation between man and place and possible systems of representation, while addressing questions pertaining to social and mental issues through temporal and spatial motifs. Her work is usually accompanied by theoretical research.
Ruth Schloss was an Israeli painter and illustrator. Major themes in her work were Arabs, transition camps, children and women at eye-level. She expressed an egalitarian, socialist view via realism in her painting and drawing.
Naomi Frankel, also spelled Fraenkel and Frenkel, was a German-Israeli novelist. Born in Berlin, she was evacuated to Mandatory Palestine with other German-Jewish children in 1933. She became a member of Kibbutz Beit Alfa, where she lived until 1970. She began writing novels in 1956 and achieved fame with her trilogy Shaul ve-Yohannah, a three-generational tale of an assimilated German-Jewish family in prewar Germany. She wrote four other novels for adults as well as several books for children. In the 1980s Frankel abandoned her leftist convictions and adopted right-wing ideology, settling in the West Bank, where she died in 2009, aged 91.
The Birds' Head Haggadah is the oldest surviving illuminated Ashkenazi Passover Haggadah. The manuscript, produced in the Upper Rhine region of Southern Germany in the early 14th century, contains the full Hebrew text of the Haggadah, a ritual text recounting the story of Passover – the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt – which is recited by participants at a Passover Seder. The text is executed in block calligraphy and accompanied by colorful illustrations of Jews performing the Seder practices and reenacting Jewish historical events. The Birds' Head Haggadah is so called because all Jewish men, women, and children depicted in the manuscript have human bodies with the faces and beaks of birds. Non-Jewish and non-human faces are blank or blurred. Numerous theories have been advanced to explain the unusual iconography, usually tied to Jewish aniconism. The Haggadah is in the possession of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where it is on permanent exhibition.
Baruch Nachshon was an Israeli artist and mystic.
