Director of the Contemporary museum of calliraphy Alexey Shaburov and his councilor Ludmila Kulanina visited the holy places and went sightseeing over Jerusalem where the consultant of the International Exhibition of Calligraphy Avraham-Hersh Borshevsky acted as their guide.
Jerusalem aging four millenniums is said to be the holiest place in the world for the Jews and Christians and the third holy site for the Muslims.
A breath-taking view of the ancient and modern capital of Israel is opened from the vertical focus of the city, the stone bell-tower YMCA decorated with English calligraphy of Bible verses about Jerusalem carved in stone.
The Old City enclosed by vellum dating back to the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (15th century) is included by UNESCO in the list of the World Heritage sites. Here the area of only 1 sq. km. contains an incredible quantity of holy places and shrines located in four historic parts of the city: Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian.
Leaving aside the busy streets of the Muslim Quarter the guests of Israeli capital visited the Christian Quarter where the key sanctuary of the Christians, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, is located. As they continued their walking tour, they approached the Westerns Wall of the Temple of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Wailing Wall at the territory of the Jewish Quarter.
An important event of the visit was the meeting of Alexey Shaburov and Director of the National library of Israel which laid the foundation for cooperation with the Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy and International Exhibitions of beautiful writing.
A renowned master of sacral Hebrew calligraphy, Avraham-Hersh Borshevsky welcomed Alexey Shaburov and Ludmila Kulanina in his art studio located near the Main Synagogue of Jerusalem. The guests were able to see with their own eyes a unique Mezuzah, the acknowledged masterpiece of Jewish calligraphy. Other artist’s works also evoked meticulous attention of the guests.
Alexey Shaburov visited a unique exhibition Three Faces of Monotheism at the Bible Lands Museum. In the Museum of Israel located nearby the guests from Russia were able to study the artifacts of the period of the First Temple (900-500 BC), dead Sea scrolls (150 BC – 70 AD) and a model of Jerusalem of the time. The Book Temple contains the most ancient script Tanakh (Jewish part of the Bible) dating back to the 10th century – Keter Aram Soba (The Aleppo Codex).
The day rich in impressions ended with a visit to one more exhibitor of the International Exhibition of Calligraphy, an outstanding master of Jewish calligraphy Izzy Pludwinski. In his cozy workshop he demonstrated ready Haggadah of Pesach and script Torah which was not finished yet. The guests also enjoyed a spontaneous lesson of Hebrew calligraphy from Izzy Pludwinski.
