24 | JANUARY 23 • 2020 

Jews in the D
Handwriting
 
Analysis

Local expert with 
longtime graphology 
experience shares 
his knowledge.

ROCHEL BURSTYN 
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I

f you write a letter to Rabbi 
Baruch Lazewnik, be 
warned: He can learn per-
sonal things about your history, 
upbringing and personality just 
from looking at your hand-
writing.
Lazewnik’
s interest in gra-
phology started when he was 
19. He met Rabbi Chaim 
Lifshitz, a noted graphologist 
in Israel, and was amazed at 
the personal insights Lifshitz 
offered him. “He was the 
one who saw in me a natural 
curiosity about people; he sug-
gested I go into education or 
psychology,
” he said. 
Instead, Lazewnik first 
emulated Lifshitz, studying 
graphology through the 
International Graphoanalysis 
Society’
s correspondence 
school in Chicago. 
When he lived in Israel, he 
easily found work as a graphol-
ogist. “I’
d look in the newspa-

per ads; any ad that asked for 
handwritten applications, I’
d 
write to them and tell them, 
‘
Listen, I’
m not an accountant; 
I’
m a graphologist, and I’
d love 
to help you find someone who 
would be perfect for you.
” 
His career took off. He also 
worked for CO-OP
, Israel’
s 
largest supermarket chain, 
helping them weed out workers 
by looking for signs of laziness 
or dishonesty in their hand-
writing.
In 2000, Lazewnik relocat-
ed to Farmington Hills and 
discovered, unlike throughout 
Europe, graphology is not 
considered a trusted science in 
the United States. He has been 
teaching Talmud fulltime at 
Frankel Jewish Academy ever 
since. 
Knowing his histo-
ry and that he’
s authored 
Handwriting Analysis: A Guide 
to Understanding Personalities 
(Whitford Press, 1990), 

Lazewnik’
s students always beg 
— “nudnik” — him to analyze 
their handwritings. 
One student, Alex Adler, 25, 
originally of West Bloomfield, 
had his handwriting analyzed 
before he graduated. 
“Rabbi Lazewnik looked at 
my writing and said I need 
more balance; in other words, 
I needed to become more con-
scious about prioritizing. He 
even told me to practice draw-
ing figure 8s, because he said 
handwriting can influence the 
personality and the personality 
can influence the handwriting,
” 
Adler said. 
How does he do it? 
“It’
s all about how the pen 
moves on the paper. Is it flow-
ing and smooth, or jerky with 
unnecessary stops and starts? 
Is the writer pushing the pen 
hard onto the paper or not? 
Is it rhythmic or angular?” 
Lazewnik explained.
He’
s equally fascinated by 

COURTESY RABBI LAZEWNIK

La
Laze
zewn
wnik
ik’
s stu
tude
dent
nts al
alwa
ways
ys beg
eg

R
COURTESY
TESY RAB
RABBI L
BI
AZEWNIK
N

Rabbi Baruch Lazewnik with a 
sample letter and tree drawing 
by JN Contributing Writer Rochel 
Burstyn (see analysis below). 

