Project Director Dr. Barbara Mann is the Stephen H. Hoffman Professor of Modern Hebrew at Case Western Reserve University. She brings to the Institute a wealth of experience as a scholar of literary studies and a leader in the field of Jewish studies. Mann’s intellectual interests center on the meaning of materiality for the field of Jewish literary history; in both her teaching and scholarship, she is committed to the value of matching scholarly inquiry with the practice of bookmaking and printing. Mann’s experience as a participant in the 2018 NEH Summer Institute “The Book: Material Histories and Digital Futures” at Salt Lake Community College, Utah profoundly shaped her appreciation for collaborative, hands-on intellectual settings.
Project Co-Director Lynne Avadenka has received individual artist grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, a Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellowship, and her work is exhibited and collected internationally. From 2013-2024 Avadenka served as the director of Signal-Return, a Detroit nonprofit letterpress print shop and community arts center. Avadenka’s unique blend of knowledge, expertise, authority and passion for Hebrew letterpress printing and Jewish book arts, based on her decades as artist and teacher, will guide and inspire Institute participants.
Project Co-Director Shani Avni is the Ismar David Assistant Curator at Cary Graphic Arts Collection at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She is a designer and historian specializing in Jewish type and typography. Avni will teach Institute participants about the development of Hebrew type and its impact on Jewish printed matter. She will highlight the importance of establishing type and typography as scholarly disciplines and lead discussions on how to strengthen the connection between the academic and practical spheres through the accessibility of historical information.
Dr. Steven Galbraith is Curator at the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He brings extensive experience as a Curator at the Cary and at The Folger Shakespeare Library and will administer and support the full array of instructional, archival and letterpress activities at RIT.
Dr. Stefanie Halpern is Director of the Archives at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Halpern has an unparalleled knowledge of the YIVO collection, and a unique manner of communicating its meaning for teaching, scholarship and history; she brings expertise in how to teach with archival items and will advise participants vis-a-vis the importance of choosing archival items for their scholarship.
Amelia Hugill-Fontanel is Associate Curator at the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at the Rochester Institute of Technology. A renowned practitioner and expert on the history of letterpress printing, Hugill-Fontanel brings tremendous experience as a teacher and insight into both book studies and the maker turn in contemporary scholarship.
Dr. Michelle Margolis is the Norman E. Alexander Librarian for Jewish Studies at Columbia University. She is a leader in the world of Jewish library science, an expert in rare books and archival preservation, and an innovative teacher using rare books and manuscripts.
Dr. Sharon Liberman Mintz is the Curator of Jewish Art at The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary and a Senior Consultant for Judaica and Hebraica at Sotheby’s New York. She is a world-renowned expert on the art of Hebrew illuminated manuscripts and rare printed books and will provided the Institute with a unique perspective on historical Jewish print culture and contemporary collecting.
Dr. Nancy Sinkoff is a historian and Academic Director of the Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life and Professor of Jewish Studies and History at Rutgers—New Brunswick. She brings a deep knowledge of Eastern European Jewish history and wide experience as an innovative teacher, scholar and administrator in the academy.
Dr. Noam Sienna is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Toronto, where he researches the movement of Jewish books in the medieval and early modern worlds with a focus on the practices of bookmaking among Jewish communities of the Islamic world. Sienna is also an enthusiastic and knowledgeable letterpress printer.
Liron Lavi Turkenich is a multi-passionate typeface designer and a design entrepreneur. As the founder of Aravrit, a hybrid writing system that merges Hebrew and Arabic, she has received worldwide recognition and was awarded for the ingenuity and scope of her creation. She will share with the participants rare insights from her extensive experience designing research-based contemporary custom typefaces and consulting for global companies on Hebrew typeface design.