Marriage Contract on vellum. Printed red borders with Hebrew text in manuscript composed in Moroccan cursive script uniting the bridegroom Yoseph son of Yehudah Shokron with his bride Rivkah the daughter of Misaud Malul.

(KETHUBAH).

Melilla (Spanish North Africa), 13th Kislev, 1921

Text within stylized rectangular frame, outer borders comprised of marriage related Biblical verses in square script and floral patterns. With rampant lions at top surrounding an illustration of the Temple Mount with the verse “If I forget thee o Jerusalem…”

Among many Sephardic communities it was deemed meritorious to obtain a Kethubah that had been produced in the Land of Israel. This Kethubah was printed in Jerusalem and the detailed text completed in manuscript by members of the small community of Jews exiled centuries earlier from Castile, Spain who found sanctuary in Melilla. The Kethubah notes that Castilian custom was observed at the ceremony. Melilla is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave on the north coast of Morocco, with an area of less than five square miles. Melilla, along with the Spanish exclave Ceuta, is one of two permanently inhabited Spanish territories in mainland Africa.