The founding members of the Jewish Book Arts Collective are (from left to right) Jacob Romm, Jay Saper, EJ Youcha, Sophie Edelhart, and Caleb Sher. We have been helped by many interns, volunteers and friends!
CALEB SHER of Cut Paper Press is a PhD student at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Comparative Literature whose research focuses on, among other things, the development of secular, Yiddish-language intellectual tradition, with a focus on the biographization of figures such as Marx and Spinoza in Yiddish literature. Caleb’s writing has appeared in In geveb, and their translations have been published with The Loch Raven Review and the Yiddish Book Center’s digital translation initiatives. As a fellow at the Yiddish Book Center, Caleb worked to catalogue and proof the extensive collection of Yiddish type there. They currently serve as an apprentice in the Massey College Bibliography Room.
EJ YOUCHA of Pashariko Bookbinding does bookbinding, book repair, edition work, box making, and fine binding. A graduate of the North Bennet Street School’s bookbinding program, they’ve worked as a box technician in the Harvard Libraries and doing contracted work for various private practice bookbinders. Pashariko is the word for “little bird” in Ladino, the Jewish Spanish language of their grandfather’s family. EJ’s personal bookbinding is heavily influenced by history, especially personal history, and how to manifest past, present, and future into physical form. Books are the perfect material for this, an exciting place to engage with creativity, objects, and history.
JACOB ROMM of Letter and Spirit Press is a translator, scholar and letterpress printer. His translations from Yiddish have appeared in ANMLY, Asymptote, In Geveb, and Peripheries, and he has been practicing letterpress printing since 2021, bringing the playful DIY aesthetic of queer zine culture to the traditional craft of letterpress printing. Jacob is also the founder and Managing Editor of Chrysalis Magazine, which publishes art and writing by trans youth.
JAY SAPER of Pashkevil Press is an artist, writer, translator, and organizer who lives in Brooklyn, New York. She has taught Yiddish at Middlebury College and served as artist-in-residence at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt. Jay’s artist books and zines honoring the legacy of Yiddish print and activist culture are held in the collection of the Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Jay is a recipient of the PEN/Heim Translation award and Yiddish Book Center translation fellowship. Her papercuts, inspired by her residency at Denniston Hill, have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale. Along with Morgan Bassichis and Rachel Valinsky, Jay is coeditor of Questions to Ask Before Your Bat Mitzvah (Wendy’s Subway 2023).
SOPHIE EDELHART of Chupchik Press is a historian, bookbinder, and letterpress artist. They hold an M.A. in Yiddish with a collaborative specialization in Book History and Print Culture from the University of Toronto and are currently pursuing a Masters in Library and Information Science at Queens College, CUNY. Their print work focuses on Jewish book forms and Yiddish type and typography. Their first artist book, Chad Gadya, was acquired by the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in 2023. In their day job, they work as an educator at the Tenement Museum and as a rare book seller with Dan Wyman Books.
