<aside> <img src="/icons/send_gray.svg" alt="/icons/send_gray.svg" width="40px" /> The Balinson Hebrew Type Collection Today

At the Bibliography Room, the beauty of the Hebrew letterform and Yiddish materiality continue to inspire. This space aims not only to collect and preserve the tangible artifacts of printing, but in putting them to active use, also preserves the intangible skills and knowledge of the trade. Printing by hand is a sensory and embodied experience that is best understood through hands-on experiential learning. Intentionally continuing to use this Yiddish type today is also a form of resistance that connects us back to a long legacy of printers like Henry Balinson and the witty reflections of Yiddish Linguist Mordkhe Schaechter on Yiddish as a dying language (see case 1). If we continue to print with this type, and continue to tell Balinson’s story, Yiddish print culture lives on. It has a future.

Hebrew and Yiddish printing projects

This page highlights Hebrew and Yiddish projects recently printed here at Massey College using Balinson’s type, as well as a selection of prints from Jewish type collections nearby in the United States.

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Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) card Printers: Leora Bromberg & Stephen Sword Massey College, September 2019

Chanukah card Features the Hebrew letter (י) ****“yud” as flames. Printers: Leora Bromberg & Kit MacNeil Massey College, December 2022

“Chag sameach” (happy holidays) Passover card Features imagery of the splitting of the Red Sea. Printer: Sophie Edelhart Massey College, April 2022

Sophie’s card interior.

“Simaniyah” Hebrew bookmark Printer: Leora Bromberg Massey College, 2022

Job 19.23-24 Hebrew bookmark Printer: Marissa Herzig Massey College, 2023

“CV: A Count Book” Features Balinson’s 12-line wood type in numerical order. Printer: random ben zephyr [Randall McLeod] Massey College, March 2018

“You are many, they are few” excerpt from Georg Herwegh’s “Bundeslied für den Allgemeinen Deutschen Arbeiterverein” (1863), translated into Yiddish by Chaim Zhitlowsky Printer: Florian Mueller Massey College, 2022

Hebrew sign for the Bibliography Room Printer: Leora Bromberg Massey College, 2019

Mamaliga band poster Printer: Sophie Edelhart Massey College, June 2022

Excerpt from Blume Lempel's “My Friend Ben” (Yiddish) Printer: Sophie Edelhart Massey College, April 2023

Prayer for Blessing Shabbat Candles, No. 34/50 (Yiddish) Printer: Noam Sienna Massey College, February 2024

A selection of prints from other North-American Jewish type collections

“Preservation through use” broadside (Hebrew, Yiddish, and English) An expression that perfectly captures the purpose of a hands-on educational letterpress collection. ****Printers: Shani Avni, Amelia Fontanel, Kat Ward. Cary Graphic Arts Collection, Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY), 2021.

Excerpt from a Peretz Markish poem (Yiddish) Printer: Sophie Edelhart Bixler Press & Letterfoundry, (Skaneateles, NY), July 2023

“I Want a Smiling Child / Wildpeace” broadside, No. 80/120 (Hebrew, Arabic, and English) Printer: Noam Sienna Minnesota Center for Book Arts (Minneapolis, MN), October 2023.

“An Eikha Alphabet” AP Printer: Noam Sienna Bixler Press & Letterfoundry, (Skaneateles, NY), 2023

“All Sorts Are Welcome Here” keepsake, No. 26/30 Printer: Noam Sienna Minneapolis, 2023