by Tamar Wisemon

The steep decline in tourists visiting Israel this year has forced many art galleries to close. Michael Chouraqui, 44, a scribe and the proprietor of the Michael Gallery in the Safed Artists’ Colony, credits “many miracles from heaven” for the fact that his gallery continues to operate. One such miracle occurred at the end of December 2000, with Safed empty of the usual tour buses and Michael feeling the financial strain. A New York attorney walked into the gallery. “He didn’t speak a word of Hebrew, and I don’t speak English, but he liked our work and almost immediately commissioned a $6,000 Megillat Esther, which took us three months to complete” (one month to write and two more to illuminate).

“Us” refers to Michael and his wife, Danielle. They produce beautiful religious manuscripts, including ketubot, megillot, and Biblical excerpts, with Michael scribing and Danielle illuminating. When they opened their gallery, only three manuscripts hung on the whitewashed arched walls; today a treasure trove of richly illuminated paintings and framed scrolls fills the gallery’s curving space.

The entire text of the book of Numbers in micrography is included in this work by Michoel and Danielle Chouraqui.

The majority of Chouraqui manuscripts are purchased for their artistic beauty rather than for ceremonial use, since very few of their clients are religious; most are tourists from the U.S. who consider the spiritually oriented art a fitting Holy Land memento. A Megillat Esther (priced at $15,000) boasts a vibrant golden crown, surrounded by a delicately intricate wreath of curlicues and flowers that continues along the 2.4 meter-long scroll. Lesser budgets can find the Doctor’s Prayer (attributed to Maimonides) or the popular Birkat HaBayit (“Blessing for the Household”) for $200.

Michael’s current project is the restoration of a 200-year-old Megillat Esther. He readily offers visitors his stylus, so that they can participate in the mitzvah of restoring a worn letter of the antique scroll. Upon completion, Danielle will spend up to two months applying twenty-four-carat gold leaf and colors to the weathered parchment. She is researching the art of that period in preparation for her task, selecting designs such as the fleur-de-lis to provide an authentic feel.

Michael is enthusiastic about his profession as a certified sofer stam (religious scribe), and he is proficient in four types of script — Sephardic, Ashkenazic, Ari, and Ba’al HaTanya. He explains that all four levels of G-d’s creation are involved in the production of a Torah scroll. “The mineral world is represented by the ink, the vegetable by the bamboo stylus [used in the Sephardic tradition; Ashkenazim use a quill], the animal by the parchment upon which I inscribe the letters, and the human being by the scribe who puts them all together.”

Outside of the Bible, the ketubah (marriage contract) is the document most often given to the hand of an artist. While a ketubah is merely a legal contract, detailing the husband’s obligations to his bride, the tradition of illuminating it stretches back centuries. Antique ketubot comprise some of the most beautiful exhibition pieces in Jewish museums the world over. The Chouraquis have their own collection of exquisitely decorated ketubot in English, French, and Hebrew, some of which bear a strong resemblance to those hanging in the Italian Museum in Jerusalem. Danielle says that one of her favorite periods is the Italian Renaissance. Recently she has turned towards a more oriental feel, using details from Persian and Byzantine art.

A mizrach illumination.

Forty-one-year-old Danielle was born in Algeria, moving to France as a baby during the Algerian Revolution. From early childhood she sketched precise patterns of tiny leaves, flowers, and birds, forming designs similar to those of oriental carpets. A parallel love of languages (she is fluent in English, German, French, and Hebrew) led to a degree in Applied Languages from Bordeaux University.

Although not raised religious, the bombing of a Paris synagogue in 1980 brought her to a halt. “I thought to myself: I’m a Jew, but I have to learn what it is to be a Jew.” She became connected with Chabad, moving to Paris and meeting Michael. Interestingly, his family had emigrated from Algeria on the same day as hers, although the families weren’t acquainted. They married in 1986 and moved to Israel the following year, joining members of his family in Safed.

Danielle studied the traditional techniques of gold leaf illumination from a woman in Strasbourg. Illuminating manuscripts with gold is rare today, because it is an expensive craft and suppliers of the leaves are few and far between. A fine gold leaf, half the area of this magazine page, will melt down into just a small blob of gold; to illuminate one Megillat Esther may require 150 gold leaves. Danielle knows of only five artists working with gold leaf in Israel, and there is no local supplier. She turns to medieval manuscripts to provide inspiration in this area, such as a facsimile of the 1482 Lisbon Bible.

Every morning, Danielle clears away the clutter of home life and transforms the dining table of their apartment into her easel. She lays out myriad small glass bottles of Chinese ink, whose vivid hues glow in the sunlight, casting colorful shadows over the parchment. But she is not yet ready to work. “Before I begin to paint, I study Psalms and Chassidut, and I pray to be inspired. I recognize that without G-d, I’m nothing. Everyone has a gift inside them, and the inspiration does not come from me, but from G-d. I pray that the design should become intricate and rich, and if it turns out lovely, it’s because I devoted the first twenty minutes to the holy.”

A mizrach illumination.

The next two hours are spent in intense concentration and utter silence. She fastidiously dips and re-dips a fountain pen into the bottles ranged around her, much as a pianist selects the perfect notes to play his melody. As a mother of three — Sara Leah, 10; Shoshana Chaya, 5; and Rivka Hodaya, 2 — Danielle tries to limit her work to mornings: “My daughters need my attention when they are home from school. They need me to be with them.”

She accepts having only a few hours to devote to her art. “The pressure is actually the factor that makes the creation. Michael says that what I achieve in my two hours of intense work is the same as what I would spend eight hours on if I had no other responsibilities. I even tried it one day when the children were out of the house, and he is right!”

Danielle describes her method as similar to embroidery, in which the design is built up in layers of detail to promote depth. Danielle says that they work together on the ideas. “Michael has good eyes. He gives me ideas how to lay out the design and choose the colors. In illumination, the hardest thing is not to put too much in, because that can ruin it and damage the design. I always want to add and add, and Michael has to stop me.”

Art runs in their families. Danielle’s siblings are involved in music and theater, while Michael’s mother is a painter, some of whose works are displayed in the gallery. A brother, Georges, is a mosaic artist in Switzerland, from whom the Moroccan Jewish community commissioned a portrait of the previous King of Morocco, Hassan II, to present to the ruler. And the three children love to design.

When they opened their gallery, the Chouraquis elected to represent only “Shomer Shabbat” art — a carefully phrased term that includes non-observant artists who agree to give them pieces that were not created on the Sabbath, so that the Chouraquis won’t profit from desecration of the holy day. The gallery emphasizes Hebrew calligraphy, including micrography, paper cuts, and Kabbalistic configurations. A small selection of local folk art, photography, and portraiture is also on view. The Chouraquis periodically deviate from illuminated manuscripts to try other forms of Jewish art. They were asked by an American client to create a series of the Five Books of Moses in micrography, in which the illustration is formed from the entire text, written in minuscule letters. The illustrations were based upon commentaries by Maimonides and Rashi, combining scholarly interpretation with aesthetic beauty. Michael subsequently received permission to serigraph the originals.

Their ambition is to complete a set of all five megillot: Ruth, Eichah, Shir HaShirim, Esther, and Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), along with the Haggadah. But such large works require a commission. Danielle says, “We both really love our work. Beginnings are always hard, but we have faith that G-d will help us.”

The Michael Gallery is located in Safed’s Artists’ Quarter. Telephone: 04-697-2230 or 051-588-134. You can also order through Michael and Danielle’s website, www.michaelgallery.com. The Chouraqis can be e-mailed at: michael@canaan.co.il.

Tamar Wisemon, a frequent contributor, lives in Safed, Israel.