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Restoring the Ten Commandments
Our story begins a few years ago. I was sitting in my studio in Jaffa when an email arrived from an architect named Dani Ziss, who lives in Prague. In his letter he told me about a synagogue in the town of Český Krumlov in southern Czechia, built at the end of the 19th century and abandoned when the Nazis murdered most of the Jews of the Krumlov community.
After the Second World War the building served as a church and as a warehouse, and now they were restoring it and wanted to reopen it as a concert hall and exhibition space. Dani attached a photograph of the original synagogue and asked whether I could help him identify the typeface used for the Tablets of the Law; they were reconstructing the prayer hall and wanted to be as accurate as possible.
Unfortunately, all the original documents connected to the building had been lost, and no plans or other record of the interior were found. After a thorough search in the archives they managed to find one single photograph of the synagogue’s interior from before the war, and everything was reconstructed from that lone, unclear picture – the benches, the lamps, the plaster and the Tablets of the Law.
I couldn’t – the picture is not clear enough, and it was probably not a typeface at all but commissioned work by a craftsman. So I suggested we set out on a journey to reconstruct the letters.
Dani agreed and we began to investigate – we looked for similar works dated to the same period from all over the Czech Republic and the surrounding area.
Looking at the different works, you get a sense of a style that prevailed at the time. The people who lived in Czechia at the beginning of the 20th century developed distinctive forms for the Hebrew script, based on the local Latin style and on their belonging, for the most part, to the religious Ashkenazi stream.
Understanding the tools used to make the Tablets of the Law is what led the design process. In our case – wood carving.
Although I design the typeface with modern tools, I try to think of myself as a craftsman carving the letters in material; in handling the curves I imitate the movement of carving in wood.
The Ten Commandments do not require the whole Hebrew alphabet; the letters ט, ס, פ, ק and the final forms םןךץ are missing. I used the original photograph of the synagogue as a reference for setting the text on the tablet. The letters were sent to be cut in wood in Czechia, and the Tablets of the Law were completed.
After 70 years the old synagogue hall has come back to life, and today you can visit the restored hall in Český Krumlov. Details on the website: https://www.synagoga-krumlov.cz/
For the ark they made a curtain in memory of the Jews who lived and prayed in the synagogue. For the curtain I chose a modern typeface, Days & Nights, which combines the history of the Hebrew letter with contemporary design – a combination that suited the project perfectly.
I usually think of the typefaces I design as working tools for designers: files that sit on a computer and are used as needed. In this project, though, the letters are a glimpse into a history that disappeared, and making them revives something that was lost to the world. I believe typefaces are more than designers’ tools or a means of conveying messages. Our Hebrew letters hold a story of place, of time and, most importantly, of people – their lives and their wars.