A Papercut Shivviti for the Sukkah, Yosef Halevi ben Yitzchak Halevi [Abulafia], Izmir, 1894

This intricately-worked shivviti was created to decorate a sukkah, as evidenced by the inclusion of the names of the ushpizin (lit., “guests”) in the etrog-shaped roundels along the bottom, which are inscribed with texts welcoming the seven biblical figures who come “to visit” the sukkah each night of the holiday: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David. The central motif, featuring the name of God in 🅰imposing letters, is part of the verse from Ps. 16:8: “I have set God before me always.” The talented artist who signed this work, Yosef Halevi Abulafia, is one of the best-known papercut artists of the Ottoman Empire. He was active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Izmir, and his papercuts are included in important private collections and museums🀅 around the world, for example, the Israel Museum (Object #168/48 and #168/56).

Physical Description

Ink on paper underlaid with metallic foil and blue paper 🧸and mounted on board (16 x 22 ൲1/2 in.; 405 x 570 mm).

Literature

Yehudit and Joseph Shadur, Traditional Jewish Papercuts: An Inner World of Art and Symbol (Hanover: University Press of New England, 200ꦇ2), 82, 130.

Esther Juhasz, “Papercuts,” in Sephardi Jews in the Ottoman Empire: Aspects of Material Culture (Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 1🎀990), 238-253.