This Summer “printcation” took me to Western Massachusetts to Amherst to visit the Yiddish Book Center to borrow some of their Hebrew wood type to print the 20 Yiddish words needed to complete The Collection of Yiddish Words, vol. 1 that I have been working on for a while now. The Yiddish Book Center is an amazing place in and of itself, and in my visit I barely scratched the surface. But they do have a fair amount of printing equipment, some presses and some Hebrew type, both metal and wood, some of it from The Forward from Brooklyn.

At the Center I met my contact Caleb Sher who was instrumental in allowing me access to some of the Hebrew type in their collection. I so appreciated Caleb’s willingness and interest in allowing some of the type “to get some ink” and actually be used. Within a short amount of time Caleb assisted in typesetting the Yiddish words I needed, and I will say that they had a good amount of type for me to use. I used 6-line (1 inch tall) Hebrew Standard (or Regular) and Hebrew Condensed. I used the Condensed type for longer words with more characters, and enjoyed mixing the two typefaces throughout the book.

This was my first time working with a non-Latin alphabet, and while I became somewhat familiar with the Hebrew alphabet from afar typesetting the words digitally (from proofed Hebrew type that I found on the RIT Cary Graphic Arts website), this whole project brought back many memories of Hebrew school and studying for my Bar Mitzvah long ago. Still, I needed Caleb’s expertise so that I didn’t misspell any words.

From the Center in Amherst, I next traveled to Big Wheel Press in Easthampton, Mass. to print the type. There I met Bill Muller who so graciously allowed me to borrow his SP-20 letterpress in his busy, and well-appointed letterpress shop. I don’t think I had ever printed on an SP-20, and it immediately felt decidedly heavier than my SP-15 back home. But that is one of the interesting things about doing these printcations, to work in unfamiliar surroundings; to use equipment that is new to me; and to see and experience the operations of other letterpress printing facilities. Soon enough I became familiar enough with the press to operate and managed one print run on day one.

I had come to the end of this project by printing all of the English (both the larger words in wood type and the smaller definitions and usage in metal) at my shop, and needed to only finish up the project by printing the Yiddish words using the Hebrew type. I printed all of the 20 words in silver ink, allowing the silver to act opaque by overprinting some of the areas.  I looked at this last step as almost collaging, and the registration was fairly forgiving. All in all, printing went very smoothly, the Hebrew type was nice to print with.

I do want to thank Noam Sienna for the initial inspiration—and his suggestion—to work with the Hebrew type when he mentioned that I should use Yiddish words in the book. At the time I didn’t really think about it too much, and it was Noam that mentioned to me that Hebrew is both a language and a typeface. Once I started to embrace this added layer (of potential complexity), it then became a matter of gaining access to Hebrew type that I could print with. I considered many alternate solutions, including getting plates made of the 20 words that I needed as I had digitally typeset them already. But in the end I clearly decided to make a printcation out of the experience and print with the actual Hebrew type.

And I’m so glad that I did. And I do want to thank all those that assisted in the production of this project, in particular Noam Sienna for the initial suggestion and subsequent proofreading assistance; Caleb Sher and The Yiddish Book Center for allowing me to use their Hebrew type; and Bill Muller for welcoming me into his print shop. I am deeply appreciative of all those involved.

And as the week was winding down, I got an added bonus to attend a concert by the Klezmatics who just happened to be playing during “Yidstock,” a festival of Yiddish music. What an experience! And lastly, on my way outta town visited with John Barrett and Joann at Letterpress Things. All in all a wonderful trip and experience.