SimHebrew | כלאמ”ר
Ask the average Westerner what Hebrew looks like, and they would probably imagine something like this:
Ask the average Israeli, and they would probably imagine much the same, but perhaps in a more modern, more subtly serifed, or a non-serif font:
Some might cite an example of modern Hebrew cursive writing, which is far less familiar to people outside Israel:
or lesser-known traditional varieties, such as “Rashi Script”, which is often used in Talmudic commentary:
Some might know of other varieties of Hebrew script over the centuries, such as the cursive script of Sephardi Jews in the Arab empire in the late Middle Ages, which not surprisingly was influenced by the Arabic script:
(Medieval Sephardi Hebrew cursive (courtesy of the Bodleian Library, Oxford)
or the Gothic-like cursive among Ashkenazi Jews at the same period:
Medieval Ashkenazi Hebrew cursive (courtesy of the Bodleian Library, Oxford)
Someone more versed in the history of Hebrew script might point out that the original Hebrew script (which was common to all Canaanite nations—including Israel and Judah right—up to the end of the First Temple period, in 586 BCE, and served as the basis for the Greek alphabet, which begat the Roman one), could also be used:
But it’s only when you see the same text in Hebrew Morse code:
or in Hebrew Braille:
—that you begin to understand that Hebrew is not so much a script, as a language—and that Hebrew characters can vary enormously in their graphic appearance, and still retain the integrity of the language. In other words, as long as you designate that a particular sign means aleph, another stands for bet, another stands for gimmel, and so forth, for all letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet (alphabet)—any collection of signs can be used to represent Hebrew.