Davis Teacher Launches Hebrew Typography Tool

Harrison Bleiberg, a kindergarten Hebrew and Judaics teacher at The Davis Academy, has channeled more than a decade of experience in the professional Jewish space into a new online tool. Bleiberg has always preferred creating his own classroom tools and learned how much different fonts can impact students who are learning Hebrew, leading him to create Hebrew Font Maker, a part of ivritsuite.com.

Despite having experience in web design and JavaScript coding, building a piece of software to achieve his goal of a font maker proved to be a challenge.

“Within the first week I went on summer break, I started working on the font maker again, testing the workflows, fixing bugs, and finally finishing the very font project that first inspired this tool,” Bleiberg shared. “When I initially launched the tool, I shared it on my personal social media and in some Jewish educator Facebook groups. Within the first week, I had over 1,000 hits to my website and over 250 unique visitors from all across the world. I received messages from all kinds of folks, including Soferim, artists, historians, and even a cultural advisor and linguist for the U.S. Military!”

One of Bleiberg’s main goals was accessibility as he continues to develop the tool as a go-to destination for Hebrew and Judaics teachers. The tool is completely free. This access has allowed the tool to spread beyond teachers, and “is now being used by people who rarely share a tool: Torah scribes studying letterforms, Hebrew and day-school teachers building their own classroom materials, graphic designers, and — [Bleiberg’s] favorite part — people reviving lost typefaces by scanning letters out of old, out-of-print Hebrew books, essentially rescuing Jewish printing heritage one font at a time.”

One of the first users of the website was Baruch Sienna, a notable Canadian Ketubah artist and graphic designer. Bleiberg noted, “[Sienna’s] experience and feedback as a professional font maker was instrumental in taking the font maker to the next level.”

Bleiberg shared that he has no intention of turning a profit from his typography tool.