About
Yiddish Initials or Jewish Initials?
This project was first proposed to a group of scholars and artists at a two day symposium titled "Letters That Link Us: Histories and Mysteries of Hebrew Type," organized by Noam Sienna and Robyn Awend in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in April of 2024.
There I proposed a project to collect ornamental initials that use the Hebrew alphabet. My case for this was however rooted in Yiddish examples. And so my talk was entitled "Yiddish initials: Digital Beginnings." I have kept Yiddish Initials as the title for the site, but the title the collection is Jewish Ornamental Initials. This is mainly because I did not want to purchase yet another domain name. So Yiddish Initials serves only to transition from the URL to the collection. Yiddish is just the beginning.
Of course "Jewish" initials is not much better. "Jewish" here serves to indicate the common practice of diverse Jewish languages to use the Hebrew alphabet. Whereas "Hebrew" connotes, I think too strongly, the modern Hebrew language, which is of course also an important part of this project. Jewish is also problematic because it might suggest a religious or cultural identity of the artist. As will hopefully become self-evident, many Christians produced beautiful Jewish ornamental initials.
As always, this is a growing digital project that can be easily modified. Your feedback and contribution is appreciated but also necessary if this is to become something useful.
I am grateful for the symposium participants and organizers for showing inspiring support. I hope this project does not disappoint.
—Raphi