An Important American Papercut Mizrah, Albany, New York: 1866

1 papercut ( 28 ¼ x 22 in.; 702 x 506 mm). Pen, pencil, ink, and wash, on elaborately cut paper, laid over blue paper background. Signed and dated in Hebrew within central panel at lower border; two later dedicatory paper plaques pasted on either side; all below a cartouche in which additional Hebrew prayer texts appear. Paper lightly browned with age, as expected. Additional light discoloration along lower portion due to dampstain; some residual creasing from early folds. Glazed. Mounted in a contemporary carved gilt wood frame. (Not examined outside frame)

Joseph and Yehudit Shadur, Traditional Jewish Papercuts: An Inner World of Art and Symbol, 2002.

A Mizrah (Hebrew for "east") is a decorative plaque placed on the eastern wall of a home or synagogue to orient the direction of one's prayer toward the city of Jerusalem. The most beautiful examples of these plaques were often made by Jewish folk artists, using the demanding and exacting technique of excising small bits of paper from a large sheet, leaving an elaborate image that adds an entire new dimensionality to the artwork being created. When wielded by a skilled craftsman, the papercutter’s knife produced the most elegant and striking mizrah plaques of all.

In the center of the lower border of this monumental Mizrah the artist has penned a lengthy Hebrew inscription which documents the circumstances surrounding its production:

"Created by Jacob Hayyim ben Eliezer Cantarow. I began it in the year [5]619 (=1859) in the gubernia (Governorate) of Poltava, the uyezd (District) of Pereyaslav in the city of Helmiaziv, in Russia (currently Ukraine). It was completed in the year [5]626 (=1866) in America in the city of Albany, New York.”

Further research indicates that he immigrated to America with his wife, Anna Maazel and practiced medicine. He, his wife, and 5 children are noted in the census of Hartford, Connecticut of 1900 and he was buried in the Jewish cemetery there, upon his death in 1904.  The Mizrah passed to his grandson, Dr. J. Harold Cantarow, a practicing physician in California who gifted it to Rabbi Julian Feingold, the spiritual leader of University Synagogue, Los Angeles from 1948-1963, then by descent to the present owner.

The artist, Jacob Cantarow, chose to adorn his creation by incorporating traditional Jewish texts and symbols into his painstakingly executed papercut. Among these he included: the seven-branched menorah; the Ten Commandments; two hands bestowing the priestly benediction, all set within intricately patterned foliage. A central circular medallion is inscribed with God’s name and surrounded by the Hebrew verse (Ps. 113:3) "From the rising (mi-mizrah) of the sun unto the going down thereof, the Lord's name is to be praised.” A further indication that this plaque was intended to be used at the time of regular worship services is the presence, within the central cartouche above the artist’s signature, of a prefatory meditation, traditionally recited before prayers.

This magnificent papercut Mizrah is an outstanding example of the continuity of Jewish folk art tradition as it was transferred from Eastern Europe to the United States in the mid-nineteenth century.

Between the artist’s own testimony, inscribed in the work itself, and the additional information which may be gleaned from the two later dedicatory paper plaques affixed to it, we can ascertain the following:  Jacob Harold Cantarow was born in 1841, began work on this Mizrah in 1859, while still in Russia, at the age of 18 years old; he subsequently immigrated to America, where, in the city of Albany New York, in 1866, more than seven years and seven thousand miles from the time and place he had begun, he finally completed the present artwork.

Further research indicates that he immigrated to America with his wife, Anna Maazel and practiced medicine. He, his wife, and 5 children are noted in the census of Hartford, Connecticut of 1900 and he was buried in the Jewish cemetery there, upon his death in 1904.  The Mizrah passed to his grandson, Dr. J. Harold Cantarow, a practicing physician in California who gifted it to Rabbi Julian Feingold, the spiritual leader of University Synagogue, Los Angeles from 1948-1963, then by descent to the present owner.