In 1957, nine-year-old Martin Mendelsberg went up close to a Torah scroll for the first time. The beauty of the ancient Hebrew letters had a lasting effect on him. Always intrigued by design, he was captivated by the patterns of the black letters dancing against the white of the parchment.

Growing up in Denver, he began drawing, painting, and constructing three-dimensional works at the age of four. Neither of his parents is an artist, he said; he "got the talent from Hashem."

Mendelsberg studied painting, sculpture, and calligraphy at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where he received a bachelor's degree in fine arts, and then went on to earn a master's in the same field from the University of Denver. During that time, the artist focused on secular subjects.

Fifteen years ago, he began studying the origins of Hebrew orthography with Dr. David Sanders, a teacher of Kabala in Denver, and became "fascinated with the abstract forms and counterforms of the alef-bet."

"We discovered that the letters are not merely a convenience of language, but are considered in Jewish tradition to be essences that sustain the structure of the world," Mendelsberg explained. "The shape, name, and numeric value of each letter have lessons to teach us about our spiritual and religious lives.

Mendelsberg eventually partnered with Sanders to create AlefBet Designs, a company that sells decorative tiles of Hebrew letters. They also run AlefBet House, a not-for-profit educational institution that offers classes on the Kabala of the Hebrew letters.

Mendelsberg's first introduction to drawing letters as they appear in the sacred writings was through Rabbi Menachem Goldberger, a rabbi in Denver and a sofer, or religious scribe, who trained in Jerusalem. The two teamed up to create ketubot, marriage contracts, and Goldberger taught his student how to carve a quill to form the Hebrew letters in the traditional manner.

Mendelsberg, who is now an instructor of design and typography at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Denver, said that the layers of meaning he gleans from studying the letters' shape and form reinforce his belief in Torah and strengthen his spiritual connection to Judaism.

"Every artist searches for a personal voice and approach," Mendelsberg said. Finding his way to the Hebrew letters as they appear in the Torah "opened up endless possibilities" for letting his "imagination run wild."

After mastering the scribal font, Mendelsberg said, he discovered that no quality Hebrew typeface existed in America or Israel that reflected the grace of the letterforms found in the sacred texts. He was determined to develop "a digital Hebrew font based on the best scribal models."

Using classic texts as guides – including the Mishnas Sofrim, a teaching manual for religious scribes – Mendelsberg began hand-producing the letters.

He drew the characters with precision, then digitally scanned them with high-quality equipment. He used a professional software program to complete the design of the font – which he called "Torah."

While working on his typeface in 1994, Mendelsberg met Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, author of The Alef-Beit, Jewish Thought Revealed Through the Hebrew Letters, who initially had reservations about the concept of translating "sacred letters" into a computer font.

Since meeting Ginsburgh, Mendelsberg said, "I continued to work and rework the letters until I felt that the look and feel of the alphabet reflected the nuances found in these sacred letters. I had to deal with the problem of transforming a biblical script into a digital typeface without contrivances."

Ginsburgh eventually encouraged Mendelsberg to complete the project, which the rabbi carefully examined and ultimately approved.

After more than 10 years of sustained work, Mendelsberg's "Torah" font is now available worldwide through Masterfont Limited of Tel Aviv, one of the largest Hebrew font companies in Israel. Lead designer Zvika Rosenberg and his team have converted Mendelsberg's files to work seamlessly with Israeli keyboards, word processors, and output devices.

The typeface he created became the building blocks for Mendelsberg's art. He created bar and bat mitzva invitations, prints and posters, displaying his original designs on his Web site and generating interest from galleries and museums. During the past 10 years, he has exhibited his alef-bet-based work in China, Russia, Australia, Canada, and the United States. His work is in permanent collections at Yale University and, in New Zealand, at the New Zealand National Gallery and the Victoria University School of Design and Architecture.

Today, all Mendelsberg's artwork is rooted in Judaism, including his "Holocaust Portfolio."

Based on graphics originally created for The Holocaust Alphabet, a book he is developing with Sanders that will tell the metaphorical story of the Shoa through the Hebrew letters, the portfolio was inspired by a photo album Mendelsberg found in his parents' home. Although his parents were in America during the war, many of their relatives perished in Europe.

"I began thinking about the Holocaust and placing myself there," Mendelsberg said. "I thought about the prayers – Sh'ma, Ani Ma'amim, and the Kaddish" – and began integrating them with other photos from the album to form the portfolio.

Combining images with Hebrew letters and prayers, the portfolio is a project the artist describes as "close to my heart" and is "dedicated to the myriad of souls whose physical existence was desecrated by the Nazi terror."

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