The concrete poem “Uri Tsvi farn tseylem, INRI” (“אורי צבֿי פֿאַרן צלם„; “Uri-Zvi Before the Cross”), written by Uri-Zvi Greenberg (1896–1981), was featured in the second issue of the short-lived Yiddish literary journal Albatros (1922–1923), which was dedicated to expressionist and avant-garde aesthetics. The journal published its first two issues in Warsaw, eventually publishing the final third in Berlin due to censorship from Polish authorities. The text, shaped like Jesus’ crucifix and labeled with the Latin “INRI” (“Iēsūs Nāzarēnus Rēx Iūdaeōrum;” “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”), was deemed anti-Christian due to its content, which situated Jesus as a selfish martyr and a traitor to the Jews.

Both the title in Yiddish and the poem’s text are set in Frank-Rühl (פרנק-ריהל), the first modern Hebrew typeface, designed by Rafael Frank (1867–1920) and originally issued between 1908 and 1910 by the type foundry C.F. Rühl in Leipzig. The Latin capitals used for “INRI” are unidentified.

Israeli designer Avi Bohbot, who previously designed the visual identity for the Museum of Bat Yam, Israel (MoBY), was commissioned to create this special series of posters for the exhibition Plenty — שפע (Shafa) is the Hebrew title — on show at the Museum of Bat Yam. He expertly applied Adi Stern’s Noam Text fonts, as he did before in the printed specimen. The fonts play a clear and distinct role as communicator conveying information about the exhibit and related events.

The exhibition deals with limitations and power, and the creative impulse they can stimulate. The participating artists and their works interact with everyday materials that surround us. They reflect on the struggle between the desire to connect with and react to our reality, and the urge to break out of it.

Art exhibition and series of events, 21 June – 21 November 2018
Curator: Hila Cohen-Schneiderman

Tarshish Books was founded by Moshe Spitzer (1900–1982) in Jerusalem after he had fled Germany in 1939. Over the next forty years, Spitzer designed and published more than 100 books — classics of European and modern Hebrew literature as well as medieval Jewish texts — that were rare in their beauty, both in content and form. In 1942, in order to improve the quality of the printing and to better control the layout and typography of his books, Spitzer set up his own typesetting studio which was also used by other publishers. In 1954, together with Heinz van Cleef, Spitzer established the Jerusalem Type Foundry, the first Israeli type foundry, and helped to create modern Hebrew typefaces like Hatzvi and David. — Sources: Haaretz, Goethe-Institut, DLA Marbach. See also Ada Wardi (ed.): The Graphic Design of Moshe Spitzer, Franzisca Baruch, and Henri Friedlaender: New Types Three Pioneers of Hebrew Graphic Design. Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 2016. (Hebrew edition: 2015). A monograph of Spitzer’s works initiated by Ariel and Ada Wardi was published in 2016 (in Hebrew only).

The publisher’s logo shown here was designed by Avigdor Arikha.

Ada Fishman: Di yidishe arbetorin-bavegung in Erets Yisroel, Warsaw: HeHalutz / Al-HaMishmar, 1931

An early use of the Haim typeface on the cover of a book by Ada Fishman on the Jewish Working Women’s Movement in Palestine. The book, originally written in Hebrew, was published in a Yiddish translation in Warsaw in 1931.

Following Yiddish orthography the typeface is set with diacritical marks (for letters used as vowels). For Mandatory Palestine the acronym א״י (Erets Yisroel) is used. In Yiddish (as in Hebrew) acronyms are formed with a double apostrophe called Gershayim.

David Tartakover: Tartakover (טרטקובר), Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 2011.

Catalog with images and notes on the work of Israeli graphic designer, collector, political activist and artist David Tartakover (*1944).

The text on the cover reads as follows:

David Tartakover was born in Haifa, grew up in Jerusalem and lives in Tel Aviv. At the age of 18 he went to the paratroopers, from there to Bezalel, and at the age of 22 went to London to study graphic design. He returned to Jerusalem, then went to Tel Aviv and settled down to work. Since then he has not stopped. Tartakover is who we are. His work is a mirror that reflects Israeli society and its culture in the last 40 years. The look of our faces. Sometimes as we would like to look, and sometimes as we really do.

The cover features two classics of Hebrew typography. Frank-Rühl (פרנק-ריהל) is the first modern Hebrew typeface, designed by Rafael Frank (1867–1920) and originally issued between 1908 and 1910 by the typefoundry C. F. Rühl in Leipzig. C. F. Rühl was taken over by the H. Berthold AG in Berlin who included the typeface in their groundbreaking catalog of Hebrew and Yiddish typefaces (Katalog hebräischer und jüdischer Schriften der Schriftgießerei H. Berthold AG) from 1924.

Haim (חיים) was designed by Jan Le Witt (1907–1991) and originally produced by the Warsaw based typefoundry Jan Idźkowski i S-ka in 1929 for the Yiddish market. The typeface became very popular for headlines and titles in Palestine in the 1930s. The narrow version of the typeface used on the spine originally was produced by the same company around 1936 without the participation of Le Witt.

On the Linotype website both names of the original designers are misspelled (as “Frank Ruhl” and “Yaacov Haim Lavit”).

Further reading:
— Ittai Joseph Tamari: “Rafael Frank und seine hebräischen Druckschriften”, in: Manfred Unger (ed.): Judaica Lipsiensia (Leipzig 1994), 70–78.
— Stephen Lubell: “Joseph Tscherkassky — Orientalist and Typefounder”, in: Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (1996), 222–239.
— Marian Misiak, “Chaim: owoc wielokulturowej Warszawy”, in: Paneuropa, Kometa, Hel. Szkice z historii projektowania liter w Polsce (Kraków 2015), 76–81. See also this excerpt published on dwutygodnik.com.