A Folk Art Papercut Mizrah, Ukraine, ca. 1860

This colorful decorative papercut plaque, known as a mizrah (Hebrew for “east”), was designed to be hung on the eastern wall of a home or synagogue to orient the direction of one’s prayer toward the city of Jerusalem. Profusely decorated, the papercut is dominated by four pairs of symbolic animals: leopards, eagles, deer, and lions, which illustrate the text of Pirkei avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 5:23. The text urges each individual to “be bold as a leopard, light as an eagle, swift as a deer, and strong as a lion to carry out the will of your Father in Heaven.” A central circular medallion contains the word mizrah surrounded by the Hebrew words for “From this direction, the spirit of life.” At foot, a stylized seven-branched menorah is inscribed with the words of psalm 67.

An almost identical papercut is found in the collection of the Wolfson Museum of Jewish Art, Hechal Shlomo, Jerusalem (JUD 2482). That papercut includes the inscription “Joshua Alter Akibas, when he reached the age of mizvot,” localized and dated to Litin (now Ukraine), 1858. It had been assumed that Joshua was the artist, but the present papercut plaque has the name Moses ben Isaac written on it, and it is equally plausible that Joshua and Moses were the people for whom the plaques were created, rather than either being the artist.

Physical Description

Ink and gouache on paper (14 1/8 x 17 7/8 in.; 358 x 453 mm). Slightly warped and dogeared in places. Matted; not examined outside of the matte. 

Literature

Joseph and Yehudit Shadur, Traditional Jewish Papercuts: An Inner World of Art and Symbol (Hanover; London: University Press of New England, 2002).