Wedding

Above the Hupah (the wedding canopy) the words from the marriage ceremony “Behold thou art made holy unto me” are inscribed. The four corners of the canopy are supported by decorated poles held by celebrants. The bride and groom are represented by thrones inscribed with the following quotation from The Song of Songs (III 9-11): “King Solomon made himself a palanquin of the wood of Lebanon. He made pillars of silver, the top of gold, the seat of purple, the inside thereof being inlaid of love, from the daughters of Jerusalem. Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and gaze upon King Solomon, even upon the crown with which his mother has crowned him on the day of his wedding and on the day of supreme joy.”

Shraga Weil was born in Nitra, Czechoslovakia in 1918 to a family of teachers, journalists and merchants. His father, a building engineer, who was an amateur painter, sent him to study with a local sculptor and then to the Prague School of Art.

He produced his first graphic works during World War II, part of which he spent as a prisoner. After the war, Weil sailed for Israel on an illegal immigrant ship, eventually arriving in the new country in 1947 and becoming a member of Kibbutz Haogen, where he has been living ever since.

In 1954 Weil spent some time studying murals and graphic techniques at the Academie des Beaux Arts, Paris and Ravenna mosaics with Prof. Severinl.

Shraga Weil’s works have been exhibited in the United States, South America, Canada, Australia, France, the USSR, Switzerland, and in the International Exhibition of Graphic Arts, in Lugano. In 1959, Weil was awarded Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Art Prize