Jewish wedding in Crimea

Pavel Ivanovich Sumarokov, ca. 1767–1846 (Author)

Dosugi krymskago sud’i, ili Vtoroe puteshestvīe v Tavridu (Leisures of a Crimean Judge or a Second Journey to Taurida)

V Sankt Peterburg︠i︡e: Imperatorska︠i︡a tipografi︠i︡a, 1803-05

Afanasy de Paldo (Artist)

“Evreiskaia svad'ba” (“Jewish wedding”) 

The book Dosugi krymskago sud’i ili Vtoroe puteshestvīe v Tavridu (Leisures of a Crimean Judge or a Second Journey to Taurida) by Pavel Ivanovich Sumarokov, a high-ranking Russian government official, stands as one of the earliest illustrated geographic and ethnographic accounts of the Crimean Peninsula in the Russian language. It encompasses a rich tapestry of cultural, ethnic, and religious traditions in the region, which included Tatars, Karaites, Jews, Greeks, and others. 

Published in a two-volume edition in St. Petersburg in 1803–05 and based on Sumarokov’s Crimean travelogs of 1802–03, it also comprises the earliest description of the Ashkenazi community in the area. The first Ashkenazi Jews began settling in Crimea in 1783, after the peninsula was annexed by the Russian Empire from the Crimean Khanate. In 1791, following Empress Catherine the Great’s decree, the newly established Pale of Settlement, which defined areas where Jews were allowed to live, also included Crimea. 

The second volume of the work contains a captivating description of the Ashkenazi wedding that Sumarokov attended in the city of Akmesdzhit (present-day Simferopol). It is accompanied by the detailed engraving shown here, full of fascinating particulars. Though unsigned, the drawing is believed to have been sketched by the French amateur artist Afanasy de Paldo, a forest manager of the peninsula, who accompanied Sumarokov on the trip. Professional artists later enhanced the drawing and made it into an engraving. 

The engraving depicts a young couple standing under a canopy in the courtyard of the newly constructed two–story synagogue building. The attire of the participants is traditional for the Jews residing in the shtetls in the western parts of the Russian Empire at that time: men with sidelocks wearing long-skimmed kaftans and wide-brim fur hats (shtreimels), and women with their heads covered with scarves tied in a particular manner. The rabbi, wrapped in a tallit, or prayer shawl, holds a ritual cup of wine while reading the wedding contract. The klezmer, or Jewish folk musician, standing on the left takes a break from playing his violin to smoke a pipe during the rabbi’s speech. Wedding guests include representatives of Russian nobility, Jews, and non-Jews. The wedding is set against a backdrop reflecting the cultural diversity of the Crimean Peninsula, with minarets of a mosque in the background.