This page

http://www.tau.ac.il/~stoledo/fonts/articles.html

has some awesome links...

The page has three headings in blue; the links are an orange-red color, and the last link under the first heading, and the first link under the second heading are two particularly awesome ones. The first is a document in English, the second a scan of an important type catalogue showing Hebrew typefaces.

Sjaak,

Good luck with your project.

May I suggest that you narrow down the topic of Hebrew typography to a single great Hebrew type designer, Mr. Isamar David.

Mr. David passed away recently. So, information about him is readily available, even on the Internet.

David had multiple designs and styles, in typefaces and art objects, to make a study of him varied and interested. He came from Europe, and lived in America; as a result, he multi-culture, and reflect not live as an Israel. Everything I mentioned is in print, and accessible.

I don't think that there is another figure has all these qualities.

Thank God for Google translate!
Today I will look for some ideas to narrow my project, I'll post again if i have something.
Thanks again ;)

Look for the book by Ada Yardeni — The Book of Hebrew Script; email me If you need some help with the Hebrew, or post it here.

> Mr. David passed away recently....

??????

2011-1996=15 years.

> He came from Europe, and lived in America

??????

He lived in Israel from 1932 to 1953. In 1953 he moved to America.

I could say that 1996 seems pretty recent to me. But then, everything after about 1972 or so seems recent; probably I'm just getting old. (Since we are talking about human affairs, that it's definitely in the Late Quaternary, aka Recent, is not relevant.)

I could mention the fact that Israel is a participant in the Eurovision Song Contest.

But, of course, neither of these things are serious objections to your points.

David,

David was an Israeli, born in 1932 = 1996 - 1932 = 64 year old when deceased.
Multi-cultural, but not European. Not really a dib either if he left in 53.

I'm more of a dib. Give me that shwarma!

I thought Frank, but he's long ago and far away, to get facts.
Narkiss was always a dib.
Koren didn't design much.
The others are dinkier.

Before 96, I could've met him. I've been in Brooklyn since 93.

John,

Eurovision Song Contest -- huh?

I still think that Isamar David is the best choice.

(Soon, GoHebrew will release lots of his designs. In Heaven, David will thumb his nose at Narkiss - "greater variety, too".

David,

How does "Hebrew Manuscripts: The Power of Script and Image" by Ilana Tahan compare to "The Book of Hebrew Script: History, Palaeography, Script Styles, Calligraphy & Design [Hardcover" by Ada Yardeni?

David,

Ismar David, German/Israeli/American (1910 - 1996)

Ismar David, considered one of the few graphic designers, illustrators, and calligraphers of international reputation, was a
German-born graphic artist who practiced the first third of his
professional career in Jerusalem and the remainder in New
York City.

Ismar David was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw,
Poland) on August 27, 1910. At the age of fourteen, he left
school to apprentice as a house painter and varnisher. After
receiving his journeyman papers, however, he returned to
study decorative painting at the Arts & Crafts School of Berlin-
Charlottenberg, where many of the finest book craftsmen of
the first part of the century taught and studied.Hans Orlowski
and Johannes Boeland were among his teachers.

In 1932, at the age of twenty-one, Ismar David entered and won
an international competition sponsored by the Jewish National
Fund for the design of its honorary Golden Book. He traveled
to Jerusalem to supervise the execution of the project, and he
settled there for the next twenty years and established a studio
for interior and graphic design.

Before moving permanently to the United States, Ismar David
made several visits to New York City.His first trip, in 1939, was
to work on the Palestine Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair.
In 1947, he traveled to New York to study printing methods.
With the help of Dr. Robert Leslie, he returned in 1951 to make
arrangements with the Intertype Corporation for the casting of
David Hebrew. And finally in 1952, David visited New York to
design and install an industrial exhibition for Bonds for Israel.
Ismar David emigrated to the United States in 1953, and on
June 3rd of that year, married Hortense Mendel. Ismar had met
Hortense, an associate of Robert Leslie at the Composing
Room, during his 1951 trip to New York to show Intertype hisHebrew alphabets. The two spent six years together before
Hortense died on October 9, 1960.

Upon his arrival in New York City in 1953, Ismar David established
a design studio and began teaching Latin calligraphy at
Cooper Union and Pratt Institute.

In the early 1990s, Ismar David continued to take on select
commissions for graphic design; however, he also expressed his
personal interest in three-dimensional form with the creation
of such objects as a folding baby cradle and a paper Elijah’s cup
and folding seder plate. Before he died on February 26, 1996, in
New York City, Ismar David produced his 1996 greeting card—
the last in a forty-odd-year series that traces the evolution of
his lettering and illustration styles, and the constant influence
of biblical themes.

---

Germany - Israel - USA

Every year, in Europe, there is a famous televised competition in which each country is represented by a performer singing a song. There is a strict rule that these songs must be original - and thus they must be songs not heard before.

That rule was made somewhat less strict when a song was disqualified because it's composer was overheard whistling it in a cafeteria before the competition date.

Despite the name of the competition, in addition to European countries, Israel is represented in the contest.

Two well-known songs that were the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest were "Waterloo" by ABBA and "Puppet on a String" (Un Tout Petit Pantin) performed by France Gall; in that year's contest, another notable entry was "Love is Blue" (L'Amour Est Bleu) the entry for Luxembourg. Other notable winners include "Tom Pilibi", "Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son" and "Non ho l'Età".

Israel's first entry in the competition was made in 1973; the participants are the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. Israel was the winner in 1978 and 1979.

The reason I mentioned the Eurovision Song Contest in passing was simply to give a reason why people could refer to Israel as part of Europe - after all, although on the continent of Asia, it is in close proximity to Europe, and is a Western industrialized nation.

Outside of Europe, the ESC may not be well-known. I first heard of it because Paul Mauriat's recording of "Puppet on a String" was used as the theme music to a locally-produced TV show here in Edmonton, Alberta - so I had purchased a copy of the LP, which noted that it was a European Song Contest winner under its listing on the record label.

Of course, due to language barriers, and the unpredictability of public taste, many ESC entrants, or even ESC winners, did not go on to become major international hits, even if many of them were popular in their home countries. Thus, "Tipi-Tii", Finland's 1962 ESC entry, sung by Marion Rung, was also recorded in a Swedish-language version. Finland's debut entry in that competition, from 1961, was Valoa Ikkunassa (Ett Ljus i ett Fönster), sung by Laila Kinnunen. Both it, and she, are fondly remembered in Finland, but outside Finland and its neighboring Scandinavian countries (Laila Kinnunen, who performed contemporary popular songs on Finnish television for many years, sang many of them in their original English; also, as she was evacuated to Sweden as an infant due to the Second World War, she had to learn Finnish as she was beginning her singing career - so she also recorded some songs in Swedish, in which she was therefore fluent) both are doubtless quite obscure.

HARD! ROCK! HALLELUJAH!

Lordi, Eurovision 2006. Finland's first winning entry.

Oh, my. They look... tlhingan!

They do, don't they. AFAICR, they were also the first metallers to take the ESC gold.