Franzisca Baruch

Franzisca Baruch was born in 1901 in Hamburg

Franzisca Baruch was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1901. Her father died when she was a child, and she and her sister Anna lived with their grandmother.

At 17 she entered the State School of Arts and Crafts in Berlin. She studied decoration, illustration, graphics and lettering, and took private handwriting lessons.

In 1921 she drew the Hebrew letters for a Passover Haggadah with woodcuts by Jacob Steinhardt. She worked for the Rimon publishing house and designed book covers for Hebrew writers. From 1926 she worked for Edwin Redslob, who oversaw state graphic design in the Weimar Republic.

In 1933 she moved to the Land of Israel and settled in Jerusalem. She drew maps for the Mandate government and also worked for the Haganah. Salman Schocken asked her to redesign the Haaretz logo, and she then created the Schocken font for his publishing house.

Later she designed maps, banknotes, stamps and emblems for the Israeli government. She died in 1989 and was buried at Har HaMenuchot. Her estate is held by the Israel Museum.