Object numberM2011/025:001
DescriptionKetubah, traditional Jewish wedding document, signed by Miklos Grunberg and Grace Cohen, who married on 29 October 1944 in the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, Bombay, India. The document comes in a cylindrical, silver container, which is inscribed: ‘Micky to Grace Forever, 29 October 1944.’
Miklos (born in 1918) was a Hungarian Ashkenazi Jew who came to India after fleeing Hungary in 1938. Grace Cohen (born in 1922) was a Sephardi Jewess born in Calcutta.
At Jewish weddings, the couple breaks a glass, showing they place Jerusalem above their highest joy. It is custom for some that the groom recites the sentence from Psalms, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.” (Psalms 137:5). Four ceramic shards, creamy-white in colour, are the remains of the vessel which was broken by the groom, Miklos Grunberg, with his foot during the ceremony, a symbolic gesture as a reminder of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 568 CE. Once the vessel is broken (commonly, the vessel is made of glass), the remaining shards remind the couple how fragile the bond of marriage is, and how they must care for their marriage with love and understanding. The coins in the collection are also likely a part of the symbolic binding of their marriage.
Donor Cilla Wober, daughter
Miklos (born in 1918) was a Hungarian Ashkenazi Jew who came to India after fleeing Hungary in 1938. Grace Cohen (born in 1922) was a Sephardi Jewess born in Calcutta.
At Jewish weddings, the couple breaks a glass, showing they place Jerusalem above their highest joy. It is custom for some that the groom recites the sentence from Psalms, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.” (Psalms 137:5). Four ceramic shards, creamy-white in colour, are the remains of the vessel which was broken by the groom, Miklos Grunberg, with his foot during the ceremony, a symbolic gesture as a reminder of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 568 CE. Once the vessel is broken (commonly, the vessel is made of glass), the remaining shards remind the couple how fragile the bond of marriage is, and how they must care for their marriage with love and understanding. The coins in the collection are also likely a part of the symbolic binding of their marriage.
Donor Cilla Wober, daughter
Production placeBombay, India
Production date 1944-10-29
Subjectweddings, ketubah, religious ceremonies
Object nameketubah
Dimensions
- parchment length: 330.00 mm
width: 210.00 mm
silver length: 330.00 mm
diameter: 60.00 mm
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Ms Cilla Wober