Michael Shapiro  - Ketubah.com

On How the Artist Gets Inspired for the Ketubah: "There would be a discussion of the couple's values, maybe how they met, maybe where they met, and the artist would be listening for things that were important to them, including things between the lines, maybe that they weren't speaking about, but that they got a sense of"

Business owners that become business owners because they learned a craft and saw a need are some of the most fascinating people to speak with.

Michael Shapiro learned about Ketubahs and took the bold step of starting https://ketubah.com/.  The website connects ketubah artists with Jewish couples soon to be wed.

After speaking with Michael, you learn about his keen awareness of what couples want, what artists can offer and combines this to help couples get a beautiful piece for their special day, and beyond.

Listen as Michael explains what it takes to make a great ketubah and how he has built his business around helping others.

Enjoy!

Visit Michael at: https://ketubah.com/

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Podcast Overview:

00:00 Reviving historical Jewish art forms

04:21 Understanding the Ketubah document

09:03 Ketubah sizing and ceremony use

11:43 Early ketubah art practices

15:12 Blending tech with craftsmanship

16:28 The significance of ketubahs in weddings

22:28 Transition to online services

24:10 Custom calligraphic font for Ketubahs

29:06 Starting the first website

32:02 Early marketing efforts

33:26 Providing custom design options

37:19 Meeting artists in Israel

42:02 Struggling to break even

43:39 Learning to delegate tasks

46:52 Managing through pandemic challenges

50:01 Managing cash flow challenges

53:09 Following your passion and persistence

Podcast Transcription:

Michael Shapiro [00:00:00]:

There are some. It's something that usually the couple, you know, there's been some dream of it for years and years, in some cases since childhood, people have imagined what their wedding day was going to be like. On top of that, add the hopes, dreams and expectations of parents, other family members. So it can be a very stressful thing. So I'm very proud of the fact that at least with the purchase of the ketubah, thanks to my team's expertise, empathy and real human customer service, the ketubah is one thing that you can just relax. It's not something you're going to have to worry about. We're there to hold your hand every step of the way and make sure that everything is absolutely right.

James Kademan [00:00:40]:

You have found authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link Fun to draw in customers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie calls on call, Extraordinary answering service, both business book as well as live switch. And today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Michael Shapiro of ketubah.com and I gotta say, Michael, I'm excited because we're talking about what looks to be some art that. It's funny, I had no idea stuff like this existed. So let's start with the foundation. What do you do?

Michael Shapiro [00:01:18]:

Absolutely. So ketubah.com sells ketubahs. What is a ketubah? The ketubah at its core is the Jewish marriage contract. The traditional text of it goes back more than 2,000 years. And there is a tradition which is only a thousand years old, if you will, of making this document into something beautifully written and beautifully decorated.

James Kademan [00:01:43]:

Is this so thorough? Thousands of years who or thousand years who, I guess. Tell me how that has translated over the course of modern times. Is it essentially the same that it was forever ago?

Michael Shapiro [00:01:57]:

Very, very interesting. And, and you know, I, I actually just, just published a book that looks into the history of this art form and then brings it up to date because there was a very interesting ebb and flow, which is it all started that the tradition of decorating these started in the land of Israel and in Egypt about a thousand years ago. It then moved through Europe all the way to Spain. And then after the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, it moved all throughout the Mediterranean into the Middle East. Then over time, with the invention of the printing press and the application of the printing press to making inexpensive versions of this, the art form started to die out. From sort of the late 1800s onwards. Then in North America, starting in the early 1970s, some Jewish artists in the United States and in Canada started to bring the art form back to life. And that's what the book is about.

Michael Shapiro [00:02:55]:

My book is called Ketubah Renaissance and it's about the modern revival of this ancient art form in a North American context. And that really is what made my business possible.

James Kademan [00:03:07]:

That is incredible. It's so funny something that I would consider this to be pretty major that I must be just living under a rock because I had never heard of these until connecting with you.

Michael Shapiro [00:03:18]:

Don't feel too badly. I actually, until 1995, I wasn't aware of this tradition either. So my parents and grandparents just had a simple Ketubah, a simple marriage document that was given to them by the rabbi just on a piece of paper filed away. So that was, you know, that was from the period time when this tradition of the beautifully decorated one had died out. So it was only in 1995, when I was studying in Jerusalem, networking with Judaica artists with an idea to open a shop when I came back to came back home to Canada that I met my first Ketubah artist. So don't feel too bad because I didn't know about this tradition either until, well, 30 years ago. And then I started the company.

James Kademan [00:04:01]:

Right on. That is awesome. So tell me about the contract itself right before we dive into the art, which is probably more fun. Part, tell me about the contract. Is this just a typical copy paste from every other marriage out there or is there some type of a conversation that happens between the parties, the husband, wife, as to what's going to be included there?

Michael Shapiro [00:04:21]:

So yes and yes. So the handed down text has changed very little up until this period of the Ketubah revival. And it was a revolutionary text for its time. Imagine in biblical times a woman on her own, either because her husband died or because they became divorced. And divorce is allowed in Judaism, not encouraged, but it is allowed in Judaism. Women and her children on their own could be in serious financial straits. So this was a document that basically was a little bit like, if you will, a prenup slash insurance life insurance policy, which is that if she ended up on her own, she would have financial sum that would be available to her so that she and her children would be okay. That very legal text changed very little up until, as I said, the early 1970s.

Michael Shapiro [00:05:17]:

Around the time, and this was one of the contributing factors that opened up the, the revival of the art form, there started to be A proliferation of texts, and these included texts that went outside of the religious legal framework that the original text had come down. By that time, not all Jews were practicing sort of Orthodox Judaism. Their reform there was conservative and a whole range of texts that were more like what you're mentioning in your question. Many of them now are more like love documents, commitments of shared value, rather than a legalistic sort of a document.

James Kademan [00:05:54]:

Gotcha. You know, it's interesting because I'm thinking that the. The men are essentially assigned to support the women. So if the guy goes away for whatever reason, divorce, death, whatever woman is taken care of, does it also. I mean, we're in a time now where that could be flipped, where the woman is the one making all the money. So does that go both ways?

Michael Shapiro [00:06:12]:

You know what? That's a really interesting question. The traditional text, as far as I know, does not take that into account. And the more I would say contemporary texts, they don't get into the financial end of it at all. So I guess in that circumstance, it would really be up to the state laws in terms when a couple divorces to make sure that they're treating each other fairly versus the religious document requiring that.

James Kademan [00:06:43]:

Right on. And then last question, in regards to the contract itself, is this a legally binding document? So if some. A divorce happens, the spouse can say, hey, or the ex spouse can say, hey, this is. You owe me, according to this.

Michael Shapiro [00:06:58]:

Well, it's. So it's binding within a Jewish rabbinical court, if you will. It is. There have been some attempts to bring the ketubah to the so sort of, you know, courts of the state, so to speak. I'm not an expert in that field. I don't know how successful they have been. So I guess the answer is kind of yes and kind of no.

James Kademan [00:07:20]:

All right, fair enough. Let's get into the fun stuff. Tell me about the art side of these.

Michael Shapiro [00:07:25]:

Okay, so as I mentioned, the art form, it, you know, goes back about a thousand years. It's a very rich art form. And one of the things that I find fascinating is the. That the ketubahs from different communities across time in different parts of the world typica