Two virtual orientation meetings will be held prior to the in-person Institute, on Tuesday, May 6th and Wednesday, June 4th. During the first two-hour virtual meeting, Institute Directors will introduce the Institute main themes and use small break out groups for participants to share their individual research interests. During the second two-hour virtual meeting, Dr. Stephanie Halpern (YIVO) and Dr. Steven Galbraith (RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection) will orient participants to the archival holdings at their respective institutions, including their on-line search platforms. In the second part of this virtual session, Institute directors will describe the series of sequenced tasks that will structure the Institute’s letterpress project: during the in-person Institute, participants will work in subgroups with faculty team guidance to produce a collaborative letterpress broadside print. Conceptual work for this print will begin at YIVO, where participants will choose a short text from their individual research. Eventually, a phrase from that text will be included in the letterpress prints.
Note: Participants will read short articles, critical sources and instructional videos for each day of the Institute program. Faculty will engage these materials as part of their presentations. All reading materials will be provided via the Institute website. For a “taste” of Institute readings, see this preliminary Bibliography.
Sunday, June 15, 2025 – 6 pm Location TBA Opening Meet-and-Greet
The Institute cohort and directors will arrive in New York City and meet before the Institute begins.
Day 1 (Monday, June 16, 2025), YIVO Archives
In the morning, the group will tour the YIVO archives with Dr. Stefanie Halpern. The tour of the stacks will showcase items that display the breadth of the YIVO collection including folklore, communal record books, ritual objects, and utilitarian ephemera collected from prewar Jewish communities across Eastern Europe.
In the afternoon, Barbara Mann will give a lecture, “Yiddish Little Magazines on the Hudson” on approaches to materiality in the archives, drawing on YIVO’s collection of Yiddish little magazines and yizker [memorial] books.
The group will spend the rest of the afternoon in YIVO’s Reading Room. They will begin thinking about a text to choose for their contribution to the collaborative broadside: a short quote or phrase representing their interest in Jewish print culture. The quote will eventually be printed in Rochester in one Jewish language, e.g. Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic (all languages printed with the Hebrew alphabet) as well as its translation into English.
Day 2 (Tuesday, June 17th, 2025), YIVO Archives
In the morning, Nancy Sinkoff will present on “S. L. Shneiderman and the Varieties of Yiddish Print Journalism.” Her presentation on Shneiderman (1906–1996), a Polish-born journalist who reported from around the globe, will model how diverse items from the YIVO archives contribute to a fuller appreciation of Yiddish interwar print culture and Jewish immigrant life, during a historical period of tremendous physical flux and change.
Following Sinkoff’s session, Lynne Avadenka and Shani Avni will review the sequence of tasks for the collaborative letterpress printing project. Participants will receive feedback from Institute directors and their peers on their proposed contributions. They will spend any remaining afternoon time in the Reading Room with time for more archival exploration or written reflection on discussions and readings thus far.
Day 3 (Wednesday, June 18th 2025), JTS/Columbia Rare Books Collections
The group will visit two prominent rare books collections, located blocks apart in Morningside Heights: the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary and Rare Book & Manuscript Collection at Columbia University.
In the morning, Curator Sharon Liberman Mintz, Senior Specialist for Judaica and Hebraica at Sotheby’s, will show items from the Special Collections at JTS, with a focus on incunabulum and early Hebrew scrolls including the biblical Book of Esther.
In the afternoon, Dr. Michelle Margolis, the Norman E. Alexander Librarian for Jewish Studies, will give an illustrated lecture on “Historical Typography and the Jewish Past: Print as a Window into the Early Modern Jewish Experience,” drawing on items from Columbia’s collection.
The group will remain on the Columbia University campus. Shani Avni will present an “Introduction to Jewish Typography”. She will review the development of the Hebrew script and its problematic transformation from written form into printed type. Her presentation will help participants appreciate the complex and challenging historic conditions shaping the printing of Hebrew texts and their reading experience.
Day 4 (Thursday, June 19th, 2025), Travel Day
Participants will travel together on a chartered bus to Rochester and get settled in their accommodations. There will be a stop on the way for lunch.
Day 5 (Friday, June 20th 2025), RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection
In the morning, participants will receive an introduction and orientation to the Cary Graphic Arts Collection with Dr. Steve Galbraith, Head Curator. Following that, Shani Avni will present selected Jewish examples from the collection. These items and more will be available for the participants throughout their stay in the Cary Collection. Amelia Hugill-Fontanel, Associate Curator and Master Printer, will then present on to the Technology Collection, the Cary Pressroom and the process of letterpress printing.
In the afternoon, participants will work in groups of five on their first hands-on printing exercise, working on different presses brings them into direct contact with the material processes of production in different historical periods. They will begin to familiarize themselves with the Cary’s Jewish type collections, by typesetting Hebrew wood type, inking the forms, and operating the presses. Each group will print a Hebrew type specimen for a different font; these specimens will be used as typographic reference moving forward in the broadsides project.
Weekend (Saturday, June 21st, 2025 and Sunday + June 22nd, 2025), Rochester
There are no officially scheduled Institute activities on the weekend. All participants will be provided with information on things to do in Rochester and encouraged to explore individually.
Day 6 (Monday, June 23rd 2025), RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection
In the morning, Shani Avni will present on “Curating Jewish Type” and share her work on the Cary’s Jewish wood and metal type collections. Participants will learn how the archival approach to Hebrew type collections contributes to a new understanding of modern Jewish history, and how the practice of “preservation through use” makes historical topographic knowledge relevant for contemporary practice and scholarship.
In the afternoon, participants will continue working in groups with faculty guidance, planning the layout of their collaborative broadsides. Participants will share the short phrase from their research that they wish to include in each print and determine how this content will be typographically designed into five 12” x 18” letterpress broadsides. Time and space will also be available in a dedicated room at the Cary for participants to gather and reflect, with each other and with Institute faculty, in writing and in small groups, on their work thus far.
Day 7 (Tuesday, June 24th 2025), RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection
In the morning, Noam Sienna will present on “The Early Modern Jewish Print House”. He will explore how Jewish books came into being in the early modern period with a focus on the labor and working processes of the European print house, as documented through archival records and remnants of surviving books.
Geri McCormick from Virgin Wood Type, Rochester, will present on manufacturing new Hebrew wood type from original historic patterns in her collection. She will share the challenges involved with the historic production process and insights from her experience.
In the afternoon, participants will continue working in their groups, type setting and proofing their broadsides. Again, time and space will be available for participants to continue reflecting on their work thus far, and further explore any related archival sources at the Cary.
Day 8 (Wednesday, June 25th 2025), RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection
In the morning, Sienna will present on “Manuscript and Print in the Sephardi World”. He will discuss the transformations in book culture among the Jewish communities of North Africa and the Middle East between the 16th and 20th centuries, attending to both manuscript and print traditions, with special attention to the changing role of vernacular languages (primarily Judeo-Spanish and Judeo-Arabic, both printed in the Hebrew script) in the Sephardi world.
In the afternoon, participants will continue working in their groups. They will finalize the type setting, proofing and printing of the broadside.
Day 9 (Thursday, June 26th 2025), RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection
In the morning, Lynne Avadenka will present on “The Flow of Ink: A Contemporary Artist’s Engagement with Hebrew Type.” She will share her recent work and research on the role of Jewish women in early Hebrew printing, as well as a series of innovative letterpress prints that turn text into image.
Barbara Mann will demonstrate the classroom integration of a Provisional Press Kit and suggest examples of partnering with campus-based or local community print studios.
In the afternoon, participants will finalize the broadsides and prepare for their presentation for the following day.
Day 10 (Friday, June 27th 2025), RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection
In the morning, Liron Lavi Turkenich will present on “Parallel Wor(l)ds: Crafting Harmony between Hebrew, Arabic, and Multi-script Typography.” She will share insights into her creation of Aravrit: an experimental writing system presenting a set of hybrid letters merging Hebrew and Arabic. Through exploring this project, she will discuss the process of type setting multilingual type and typography and the challenges of harmonizing the distinct characteristics of different scripts. Finally, she will show how this informs the design process of contemporary Hebrew typefaces for global use.
In the afternoon, participants will present their broadsides to the entire group. Each subgroup will share about their selection process and the meaning of their resulting print. All participants will depart with a full set of the five collaborative broadsides produced by the entire cohort. These broadsides will serve as concrete teaching tools for classes on Jewish culture and history, the development of type and book forms, and the evolution of print culture. The day will conclude with a catered meal, during which participants will be guided by Institute staff to reflect on their experience at the Institute and how they anticipate incorporating Institute materials and activities in their research and teaching practice.